i'm not crazy pipabeth au
by who-is-kiba
Summary: Piper isn't crazy. She swears, scouts honor, that she is completely, one hundred percent, sane. She only takes pills for schizophrenia because her therapist is evil and doesn't actually ever do her job. And the blonde girl is real too. She has to be. Right? - Pipabeth AU -
1. TEN MONTHS BEFORE

_Impure's are the 'sister' species to ours. They're a branch of our species that are tainted in bad deeds and desires. Because of this, Impure's are unable to see the Pure's. Pure's are practically invisible to the eye of the Impure's, as our purity can not be seen by an Impure as they are blinded._

Annabeth was just as confused as the girl was.

Her history books had _never_ said anything about special Impure's who could see them. _No one_ here was supposed to see her. She was supposed to be _invisible_ for crying out loud. _In-vis-i-bl_ e, you know, unable to be seen.

Yet, right when she had crossed through the Gate of the Impure into the abandoned house, a girl with choppy brown hair and eyes like a kaleidoscope was staring at her with startled eyes. Annabeth stared right back at her, probably with the same expression except more dumbfounded. The Impure were _not_ supposed to see her!

Fudge cakes.

Annabeth looked down at the girl's clothes in curiosity. She was dressed similarly to Annabeth, which shouldn't have surprised Annabeth really as her history books had said they had adapted just like her world had, but Annabeth had almost thought they'd look…. Different. Her shirt, a white t-shirt with a plaid patterned jacket or coat over it, read 'In the memory of when I cared', which would never have been put on anything owned by a Pure. But despite that, the jeans and shoes seemed the same as the style back home, though for lounging. It was slightly unnerving, yet comforting.

 _Despite being unable to see or be influenced by us, the Impure have developed like us in some ways, such as clothing and shelter wise. They, however, wear jeans and t-shirts in public instead of just inside._

"Piper?"

The girl, Piper she guessed her name was, turned a little, yet didn't break eye contact. "Over here, Hazel. Uh, you might want to see this."

A girl with brown, curly hair that was barely contained in a hair band poked her head into the room and sighed in relief when she spotted Piper. She opened the door wider to allow herself to walk in, heading straight to the other girl. "There you are. I swear, this house is kind of creepy."

Hazel, Annabeth assumed her name was, didn't seem to notice Annabeth at all, instead stopping beside Piper, giving her a smile. The girl didn't seem to noticed and continued to stare at Annabeth in confusion, before looking back and forth between Annabeth and the girl who had just walked in.

"Yeah, I guess it kind of is," Piper said with a frown. She stared at Annabeth as if she had some kind of explanation, but Annabeth hadn't even said one word the whole time, too busy staring in wonder.

"Leo said you have completed your dare and can come back out now, but he's kind of disappointed that you weren't kidnapped by a ghost or something so he could become a hunter," Hazel said.

Piper hummed in agreement, finally turning her gaze towards the girl. "I bet he is."

Hazel gave her a small smile. "What was it you wanted me to see?"

"I'm surprised you didn't see her when you came in," Piper said, gesturing towards Annabeth and in reply, Annabeth took a step back, ready to run back into the Gate back to her world. This world was freaky. An Impure could see her, they dressed extremely similar to the Pure's, and were all in all just strange.

Hazel looked over to where Annabeth was standing, a small frown settling on her face as she glanced right over Annabeth as if she couldn't see her. That made Annabeth frown. If this Impure couldn't see her, did that mean the ratio was half and half? Half could see her and half couldn't?

"What are you talking about?"

"Can't you see the girl?"

Hazel glared playfully at Piper and gently punched her arm. "You're as bad as Leo, trying to scare me with all this ghost stuff. C'mon, Jase and Leo are outside and probably wanted hot chocolate right about now."

Piper opened her mouth as if about to argue, but then closed it again, her eyes finding Annabeth again and seeming to contemplate something. Then she smiled softly at Hazel. "You're too smart to fool, anyways. Uh, okay, just give me a moment. I want to look at something. Go ahead to my house, I'll catch up."

Hazel bit her lip, looking back to where Piper had pointed before almost worriedly before nodding and heading towards the door. "Don't take too long! Leo wants to watch a movie as soon as we get back to yours."

"'Kay."

When Hazel's footsteps faded away, Piper turned back to Annabeth, a determined look on her face that reminded Annabeth of one of her brother's when he was searching for something.

"Who are you? Why can't Hazel see you? Why can _I_ see you?"

Wow, so many questions at one time.

"I-I don't know. _You_ shouldn't be able to see me. My history book said…," Annabeth trailed off, pressing her lips together firmly. She shouldn't be talking about this, heck, she shouldn't even _be_ there. This girl should not be increasing her curiosity to stay and see what happens, to get to know the girl. _Annabeth should leave right now_.

She didn't though, instead she took a deep breath. "I'm Annabeth."

Piper eyed her skeptically, before holding out her hand. "Piper."

Annabeth shook her hand, quickly letting go afterwards and trying to top her heart that was beating ruthlessly in her chest with nerves. She shouldn't be there, she shouldn't be there, _she should not be there_.

"I need to go," Annabeth blurted out, surprising both herself and Piper, who blinked at the sudden outburst. Before she could comment, Annabeth ran for the door and out of the house, right through on of the teenagers waiting outside with Hazel.

Annabeth gasped sharply, intense _pain_ rushing through her and making her blink as darkness appeared at the edge of her vision. Her insides, her skin, _everything_ felt as if it was being ripped apart, slowly as if so she could feel every agonizing second of it.

 _Impure's also cannot touch, feel, or hear a Pure as a Pure's genes will let their atoms pass right through the Impure's, though with breathtaking pain. This also would allow Pure's to live among Impure's if it were not for their atmosphere and food that also taints them._

Annabeth blinked away the pain, getting back up from the ground shakily. She hadn't even noticed she had fallen, nor the stinging of her knees from having collided with something hard and scratchy. She stumbled away towards the side of the abandoned house as she heard the teen she had literally walked through say, "brr, did anyone else feel that? It's getting really cold."

Why didn't she go back through the Gate?

Stupid.

Annabeth gasped again, regaining her bearings after a moment as she reached the side of the house and leaned against it.

That had _really_ hurt.

She heard the front door of the house opening, then a voice Annabeth recognized as Piper's saying something Annabeth couldn't quite understand, and when Annabeth peeked around the corner, she caught sight of her group walking away, Piper turning around a moment afterwards to look back at the house, and Annabeth, stupidly she might add, didn't bother to hide.

Piper spotted her and frowned again, but a muscular, broad blonde with glasses said something to her and she looked away again.

Annabeth let out a sigh, deciding what she was going to do next.

 _I am absolutely insane._

Annabeth found herself across the street, sneaking into Piper's household behind the muscular blonde with glasses, who luckily also couldn't see her. She felt weird standing behind him and trying to sneak in without them noticing, yet being so close to them. It was a bit rattling, but she put that aside and darted to hide under the stairs.

 _Why_ she was sneaking around and being utterly creepy while invisible was beyond Annabeth. Piper just… interested her so much because she could fricking _see_ her. Piper could see her in a world full of people who couldn't, and naturally Annabeth wanted to know more.

But _why_ she was acting on that curiosity was completely beyond her.

She should go back to the Gate, or at least go explore elsewhere and leave this mystery for another day, for someone else.

Annabeth did neither, instead peaking out from behind the stairs as the group made their way past her, into a room with several couches and a large, square thing on one of the walls.

 _Impure's have dark devices called 'television'. It feeds their inhumanity with massacres, sexual desires, and other dark parts of themselves, fueled by their genes._

She squinted at the television curiously, when the teen she had run through, with black, curly hair and overall looked like an elf, jumped up excitedly, as if he had to keep moving or he'd just about drop down and never move again.

"I got the hot chocolate!" He said, before rushing into the kitchen.

"Wait, Leo! Agh," Piper looked blonde beside her. "Jason, can you go help him? He might burn down the house."

Jason gave her an amused look before following the elf named Leo.

Annabeth decided it was time to leave when Piper fell back onto a leather couch next to Hazel, the girl from earlier. There was nothing else to see. Nothing that should interest Annabeth, anyway.

Annabeth carefully stepped out of her hiding place, thankful that Piper was facing away from her so she didn't have to worry about being hidden. Only about being quiet enough.

Annabeth gave the door a fleeting glance, wondering if she would be able to dart over to the door fast enough without making any sound, but deciding it would be too much of a risk. There were too many possibilities of making noise and Annabeth wanted to leave unnoticed.

Slowly, Annabeth moved her other foot forward, preparing herself for the slightest of squeaks, but there wasn't one, so she continued with the next step. And the next step. And the next, and the next, and the next, until she reached the door, quietly attempting to open the door and winced when a sound outside echoed through the doorway and into the living room.

"Oh hey, I thought we closed the front door..," Hazel's voice said, just loud enough for Annabeth to hear. In a panic, Annabeth threw herself out the door and landed in a bush next to the steps, cursing herself. She rolled out of the bush, trying to ignore the stinging that the contact with the bush made, and held her breath as someone approached the front door slowly, as if not wanting to approach it too fast and scare something away.

She thought she was either going to give herself away by gasping for breath or die from holding her breath too long when who ever had been there shut the door and then she _did_ gasped, holding a hand to her chest and breathing heavily. Getting out of the bush hesitantly, Annabeth glanced back at the front door. It was time to go back home. To her own world, with it's own quirks, to her own 'normal'. She'd had enough for today.

 _Impure's are dangerous, but only reside in their world. Do not engage if you ever find yourself on the other side._

"I can't believe you snuck out and didn't bother to bring me along!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes playfully. "Yeah, that would go over well. It's like calling to the guards and saying 'Oh look-y here! We're trying to go to the other side! Catch us!'"

Percy, her best friend, pouted, which made Annabeth chuckle a little, not feeling sorry for a second. While she loved Percy, he was seriously the _worst_ person to be inconspicuous with. He gets too excited and fidgety, and most of the time something breaks.

When Annabeth got home the night before, these two had been waiting for her, sitting on her bed innocently as if they were supposed to be there, when Annabeth clearly remembers telling them to go home _and stay home_. By then, it was late and she had forced them to go to sleep, despite their complaints and questions concerning where she had been. This morning she was bombarded with questions again, and she answered them honestly.

They were at school, sitting in the garden during lunch and waiting to go back to class. Ever since Annabeth had gotten back from the other side, the only thing on her mind was Piper, the Impure who could actually see her. Annabeth had brought her history book to lunch in hopes she'd get her mind off of the night before, but to no such luck. Percy demanded every single detail.

Annabeth fiddled with her history book again.

It wasn't actually a history book really- it was a copy of reports made by one of the scouts, who actively go back and forth between worlds so that they can keep updated with the Impure. All the famous scouters were in there, including the newest ones. Annabeth liked to read outside of her class, it fueled her curiosity.

When she looked back up, Percy's boyfriend, Nico, smiled amusedly at Percy's complaining, and kissed his cheek as if to comfort him and then turned back to the book he had been reading previously. Annabeth watched them interact for a second, fiddling with the history book on her lap absent-mindedly again, wondering how their relationship would be seen as in the Impure's world.

 _Some Impure's are heavily against relationships involving two people of the same 'gender'. Gender is the state of being male or female. A male and a male, or a female and a female, is looked down upon. They call it being 'gay' for males and 'lesbian' for females. Because of the harsh treatment some Impure's gave their fellow Impure, the Impure who were ridiculed for who they are hide themselves and blend in._

Annabeth shook her head. She didn't want her friends to go through that. To hide who you are…

"Whatever. Anyways, what did you see? Was it really different from our world? Do they really have those… what are they called…," Percy tilted his head, seeming to think hard. "You know, those metal things that function for their benefit…"

"Machines?"

Percy grinned and snapped his fingers. "Machines! Yeah, did they have a bunch of those?"

"Yeah, they did," Annabeth bit her lip, looking around at all of the others who were sitting around her. None of them were paying attention, nor close enough to overhear them, so she leaned in closer and whispered, "that's not the most interesting part, though."

Percy perked up even more and leaned forward too. Even Nico, who had probably been listening half-heartedly, closed his book and leaned closer so he could hear too. Annabeth found it amusing how similar the two were, even if Nico was quieter than Percy was. Both were always ready to hear a good story.

"What was the most interesting part?" Percy whispered loudly. As earlier stated, he wasn't very good with being secretive.

Annabeth and Nico both chuckled.

"You're the worst at whispering, amore," Nico stated, kissing his cheek again as Percy's face flushed red. He huffed as Nico played with a strand of his hair innocently, still staring at Annabeth and waiting for her to continue.

"You know what the history books say, right? That the Impure can't see us?" She whispers to them, and they both nod quietly. "Well yesterday, when I crossed over, this… girl saw me. Like she _actually_ saw me and heard me."

Nico's eyes widened considerably and Percy gaped at her. "You're kidding!"

"Surely she saw something else?" Nico said. "The Impure can't see us _because_ we're pure, does that mean that they're becoming pure?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I thought the same thing, but then the girl's friend came in and she couldn't see me."

Nico's eyes furrowed while Percy was still gaping at Annabeth. "Holy crap, we have to tell someone!"

Annabeth gave Percy a look and felt a wave of nerves and anger flush through her at the thought of not being able to see the other side ever again. "No. Not yet anyways, I'm still not even sure what happened. Do you think if I handed this over now that they'd let us know what happened?"

Percy frowned. "Okay, but then what are you going to do?"

Annabeth bit her lip again. "I'm going to go back out and investigate. Talk to the girl when she's alone, figure out why she can see me. Write reports and stuff. You know, like a scout."

"How can we help?" Nico said, not looking opposed to the idea at all. Instead he looked intrigued.

"You guys can do the desk work."

"What? I don't want to do desk work! Can I go with you, please?" Percy pleaded at the same time that Nico said, "That works."

Annabeth bit her lip, contemplating it before sighing. "Fine, you can come, but only a few times. I'm not going to take you every time, got it?"

Percy nodded, a slight frown still residing on his face, but he didn't say anything about how absolutely insane this was. How insane _Annabeth_ was for wanting to do this. Instead he said, "When are you going next then?"

A bit surprised, Annabeth blinks and then takes in a deep breath. "Tonight. I'm going back tonight."


	2. SIX MONTHS BEFORE

" _What do you_ _ **want**_ _from me?"_

 _The agony, the absolute_ despair _in those words cause Annabeth's heart to clench painfully. Piper's voice sounds tortured, as if Annabeth was intentionally causing her this pain. As if Annabeth_ _ **liked**_ _causing her this pain._

" _Piper, I don't want to hurt you-"_

" _BULLSHIT! If you didn't want to cause me any pain, you'd leave! I could stop going to that fuck up of a therapist! I could get rid of these. Damn. Pills!"_

 _Annabeth's heart broke as Piper let out a sob, bringing her knees to her chest and just staying like that, sob after sob leaving her mouth like water from a waterfall. Annabeth wanted to curl up with her, wanted to take away her pain, she wanted to do_ **anything** _but stand there. Her feet weren't cooperating with her, so she watched from a distance. She didn't think Piper would let her near her anyways._

" _I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Piper choked out over her sobs. "You made my life a living_ **hell** _!"_

 _Piper became silent suddenly, taking great interest in her hands. Annabeth could see from here that her eyes were blurred with tears and it made her heart clench again._

" _Maybe…"_

 _The whisper made Annabeth's heart clench and her hands start shaking._

" _Piper…" Annabeth's voice cracked._

" _Maybe they're right," Piper said, ignoring Annabeth, still staring at her hands. "Maybe I am going crazy. Maybe…"_

 _Piper looked at her, tears still streaming down her face and her eyes were puffy and she kept hiccupping. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were slightly ripped from when she had tried to tear them apart._

 _Yet, Annabeth had never seen anything so beautiful._

 _Annabeth and Piper made eye contact, and Piper hiccupped again, just before she shattered Annabeth's heart._

" _ **Maybe you're not real."**_

 _Annabeth reacted as if she had been shot, holding her chest above where her heart was and she felt so numb, so incredibly_ **numb** _. It hurt like hell._

 _Annabeth turned, her emotions overwhelming her, and ran out of the door, right through Tristan McLean, and her pain multiplied, filling her to the very core and making her just want to leave, to get out of there,_ **to disappear** _._

 _As the pain lessened, Annabeth stumbled through the house and out of the door, sprinting across the street to the abandoned house, to the portal, to_ **home** _._

 _As she ran, all she could think of was Piper's face, the hurt and agony in it, and now all she could think was how much she wanted to turn around and comfort her. How much she wanted to wipe her tears away. How much she wanted to kiss her until Piper forgave her._

 _All she could think of was how utterly, hopelessly_ **in love** _she was._


	3. CHAPTER ONE

A loud, sudden ringing jars Piper out of her daydream, making her blink stupidly for a second as students all rush past her desk, desperate to get home and lounge around or whatever it is they do during the summer. Piper curses and stands up, shouldering her bag and following them when the last student walks past her desk, knowing she'll be late to the meeting place, where she was meeting her friends for a ride. Leo had said something about leaving her behind if she was even a minute late- but of course Piper had brushed it off, thinking she'd be on time.

 _Stupid, stupid!_ Piper chided herself, trying to will the flow of students to go faster so she could go home and get some _actual_ sleeping done before picking up her dad from the airport the next morning.

Her dad was an actor; meaning he went on trips a lot. Like, _all the time_ a lot. But Piper didn't mind that much, as long as she could spend a few days with him in between trips and he called at least twice a week during them. She knew how much her dad's acting meant to him, how hard he had worked for this. It was worth it.

Finally, Piper was able to push open the doors to the school and escape for the summer, breathing in deeply and dramatically, before sprinting to make it to Leo's old rusted, reddish orange pickup truck before he decided to drive off without her.

Piper had no idea why Leo still kept it- it was _old_ and it made loud banging sounds every once and awhile that would cause Piper to jump and hit her head on the ceiling. However, every time she pointed it out, Leo would act as if she had insulted his mother. "I am _never_ parting with Festus," he'd say, either patting the steering wheel affectionately or adjusting the mirror. "Besides, who would give you a ride home if I didn't have Festus?"

Piper learned not to question Leo's motives a long time ago. Especially with his machines.

When Piper gets there, Leo has the hood of the truck up and seems to be tinkering with the engine. Ever since he totally trashed the car (Piper had no part in that), it hasn't been running properly. Sometimes, it has trouble starting up.

Piper hopes today isn't one of those days.

"I'm here," she said, forcing herself to take deeper breaths and get more oxygen into her lungs. She let out a little 'whoop' and leans slightly on the truck. "I thought I was going to miss you, I swear those people in the halls are so _slow_."

Leo, for some reason, loves to park in the _very_ back of the parking lot. It's a bit of a walk from the school doors to the general area of where he parks, and even then you still have to _find_ his rusty pickup. Luckily, Piper made it there in half the time it usually takes.

Leo gave her an amused look, twisting something under the hood before going around into the open door and twisting the keys that had been dangling from the ignition. It made a high pitch sound that made them both wince. Leo got out and shut the door again. "Well, you didn't have to run. We're still waiting on Haze and Jase. Plus, I wouldn't of _actually_ driven off without you. Hazel would have kicked my ass."

"You're kidding me," Piper said, staring dumbfounded at Leo, before throwing her arms up in disbelief. "I ran all the way here thinking that you would _actually_ leave me, but we're still waiting on those two?!"

Leo just grinned as Piper groaned and leaned fully against the truck.

"Oh, come off it, Pipes. You're just mad I had you do some physical exercise," Leo says as he wipes oil off of a wrench with a rag, rubbing his hands together. "Alright, Festus should be good now."

"Should?"

Leo shrugged, wiping his hands on the rag before putting on his hoodie. "Depends if what I fixed was the only problem."

Leo never told Piper what the problems were, he claimed that she wouldn't know any of the terms or parts. Piper suspected he didn't actually know how to pronounce the terms.

Leo opened the door to his pickup, hopping into the seat and starting the engine. This time the car turned on smoothly, and Leo fist-pumped. "Yeah, baby!"

He looked behind him, towards Piper and the rest of the parking lot. "Just in time too, Jase and Haze are walking this way."

Piper turned, and sure enough Hazel and Jason were on their way over. She grinned.

"I get shotgun," she said before dashing around the car, just as Hazel and Jason got into earshot.

"No fair, I wanted shotgun!" Hazel pouts, rushing after Piper, only getting there as Piper was opening the door. Piper laughed and hopped in the seat, sticking her tongue out at Hazel.

"That's what you get for being slow!"

Piper grinned as Leo pulled into her driveway, staring up at the her house in awe. It still surprises her how big and beautiful it is, even if she's been living in it since she was eight.

"Thanks for the ride, Le. I'll see you guys next friday right? For movie night?" Piper said, shouldering her bag and starting to get out of the car.

"Yeah," Leo said with a nod. "We'll be there."

Piper nodded back and started to close the car door. "Okay, well, bye guys."

"Bye, Pipes," chorused her friends as she shut the door. Piper made her way up to the front door, turning to wave as Leo backed out of her driveway before opening the door with her keys and stepping inside.

Inside the house was quiet- Piper was the only one living in it for the moment. Usually there's a maid who comes around and cleans the house in the summer, but as summer had just begun, the house was empty, with the exception of Piper.

She passed the living room into the kitchen, where she deposited her house keys and bag on the counter, and let out a sigh as she leaned against the sink. Piper finally had time to _sleep_.

Just as she pushed off from the counter, with full intent to go to her room to sleep like a zombie, _I Kissed A Girl_ started to blast at full volume, echoing off the kitchen tiles. Piper grumbled and started digging through her bag to find it, spotting the purple case next to her pack of strawberry gum. She pulls it out and slides her finger across the screen, holding it up to her ear before even checking the ID.

"Hello, this is Piper speaking."

"Hey Pipes, how's it feel to be free?"

Piper grinned widely. "Dad!"

As an actor, Tristan McLean, Piper's dad, had few chances to talk to his daughter when they were both free. Thank god this was one of those chances.

"Hey, sweetpea. I thought I'd call before I boarded the plane," Tristan's voice said. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Piper said with a small, sad smile. "The flight comes in at eleven am, right?"

"Yeah. You're picking me up again, right?"

"Of course. How's Nicaragua?"

"Good," He sounded tired. "Didn't get to see much, the director, Ian, had me working my ass off. Got anything planned for us when I get home?"

"A nap," Piper deadpanned. Tristan laughed, which made Piper smile. He sounded younger when he laughed. Less stressed. "After that, I think we'll watch movies for the rest of the day, to make sure you take it easy and aren't too jet lagged."

Tristan laughed again. "Why thank you for your consideration."

Piper grinned. "I know, I'm so considerate. Sunday, we're having another relax day, to see some new movies at the theater. I'm thinking Suicide Squad or Doctor Strange. Monday, though, we're either going bowling or to the fair. I haven't decided yet."

"You realize we both suck at bowling, right?"

"That's what bumpers are for," Piper chirped, pushing off from the counter and exiting the kitchen. She headed for the stairs- her overall favorite part of the house because they were spiral, twisting up to the next floor like curls in a girl's hair, or vines around a tree. "Or we could hang around the outdoor mall, of course. That could be fun."

"Sounds like you've got this mostly planned out, then."

Piper started to climb the spiral stairs and shrugged, then realizing he couldn't see her. "What else am I supposed to think about during school?"

"Well, your school work for one," Tristan said as she reached the top. "Maybe something education related."

Piper chuckled. "Nah, I don't think that's it."

Tristan chuckled. Another person's voice came on the line, muffled, and her father replied, voice seeming grim and tired. He came back on the line a second later. "I have to go, Pipes. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Piper pushed her bedroom door open with a small, sad smile. "Yeah. Love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Pipes."

Then the line clicked and Piper was left, alone, in silence.

Due to her excitement, Piper almost didn't sleep.

She was tossing mostly, unable to keep still. The excitement of seeing her dad again, as always, built up in her chest, make it hard to even think of falling asleep. She lied there, staring at the ceiling, a slight grin on her face. She could barely keep her eyes open, but every time she gave in, she felt wide awake and opened her eyes again. And the process began again, until she was so exhausted, excitement gave way and she fell asleep.

Now, Piper was leaning against the red Cherokee Jeep her father had gotten her for her sixteenth birthday, arms and legs crossed and twirling her car keys on her finger and staring at the doors of the airport. She had gotten here ten minutes to eleven thirty, as her father still had to get from the gate to the baggage claim.

Piper was buzzing with that familiar excitement that always occurred when her father got home. It made her fidget, hence why she was twirling the keys on her fingers. Her focus went to the keys, watching them go around and around on her finger. People were walking around the outside of the airport, going in and out of the building, some waiting for people just as she was.

She returned to staring at the doors of the airport again.

Finally, the doors opened again, revealing Tristan McLean carrying a large suitcase.

Piper's face brightened, and she stopped twirling the keys, pushing off from her car and running over, holding her arms out wide as she reached him, jumping up and koala hugging him as she did. "Dad!"

Piper heard and felt Tristan grunt at the sudden attack, then he chuckled and hug her back. They stood there for a minute, and Piper started to hug him as hard as she could. She had missed him _a lot_.

"Hey there, Pipes." Tristan said, and Piper let go, dropping to her feet, and grinned up at him. She turned and grabbed his suitcase from where he had abandoned it. It was heavy, but Piper dragged it towards her car anyways. Tristan followed, seeming amused.

"How was the flight?"

Tristan sighed as Piper unlocked the trunk, opened it, and struggled to lift the suitcase into it. He took it from her as she frowned, and with a bit of effort, he put it in for her. "It was long. And tiring."

Piper nodded, closing the trunk and went to the driver's side while Tristan went to the passenger's, both getting in. "And Nicaragua?"

"Beautiful, but tiring. A bit like you when you were little."

Piper laughed, starting the Jeep and pulling out from the curb.

The rest of the car ride was filled with stories of the cast and crew, singing horribly along to the radio, and chatting about Mellie, Tristan's pregnant manager. Her friends came up even managed to wiggle their way into the conversation too, at one point.

Piper pulled into the driveway thirty minutes later, yawning slightly. She really liked the sound of a nap. Tristan was talking about one of the scenes that they had filmed and getting out of the car, when he suddenly stopped and yawned.

"Looks like it's time for that nap," Piper joked. Tristan chuckled.

"I guess it is."

Piper ended up sleeping like a rock. For about three hours. She awoke for the second time that day to an alarm blaring on her phone. Groggily, Piper swiped open her phone, effectively turning it off, before grabbing it and getting up. She stretched, yawning widely, heading down to the living room, where her father sat, flipping through their CD's.

"When did you wake up?"

"Twenty minutes or so. Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah. What movie are we watching?" Piper asked through another yawn, falling into the spot next to Tristan.

"I have no idea, all of these movies are either too bad or I just can't stand them."

Piper grinned. "That might be because you're going through _my_ movies."

"Ah," Tristan looking at the cover of the case that read PIPER'S MOVIES. "So that's why _High School Musical_ was in there."

"You would think that'd be a big clue."

That earned Piper a chuckle. "You would think." Tristan sighed, making a move to get up, when Piper spoke up.

"Let's watch High School Musical-"

"Piper, not again. Not _ever_ again."

"Fine," Piper pouted. "What do you want to watch, then?"

Somehow, they ended up watching the newest _Captain America: Civil War_. Piper had no idea how _Marvel_ had even come up in their conversation of what movie was shittier- High School Musical or Star Wars. (Tristan claimed High School Musical was worse, but Piper suspects it's because she's watched it so many times.) After that came the rest of the Marvel movies- in order.

They had started to watch the fifth movie of the night, Thor 3, when Piper's phone chimed, alerting her of a notification. Expecting a text from Hazel, Piper glanced at her phone, her face dropping.

 _Medication 7:30_

Piper hadn't even realized it had gotten so late, so immersed with the movies and spending time with her dad. She turned to look at Tristan, who was engrossed in the movie still. With a sigh, Piper pushed herself off from the couch.

"I'll be right back," she said softly. Tristan looked up with concern.

"Want me to pause it?" He said, already reaching for the remote. Piper shook her head before he could.

"Nah, I've already seen this, I'll just be a second."

"Okay."

Piper hurried out of the living room, up the stairs, and into her bedroom, snatching a small orange bottle of prescription pills from her dresser on her way into the bathroom attached to her room. She bit her lip as she took a cup from her bathroom sink, filling it up with tap water and taking out two of the small, white pills from the bottle. She stared at them in her hand.

Piper used to hate taking these pills, used to cry when she remembered what they were for. It used to be absolute _torture_. She's so, so much better now.

It's not that she _likes_ taking them now. It's just, now it's so much less _painful_ to take them. Piper no longer looks at them, remembering the reason why she has to, she no longer looks at them and feels the stab of pain and betrayal that used to follow. She no longer looks at them and _feels_ anything. They're _just_ pills.

For a second, however, the face of a blonde girl flashes in her mind, followed by other painful memories filled with yelling and screaming and tears, and Piper closed her eyes, forcing herself to relax. The past few days had been iffy, she was more sensitive than usual

The next second, Piper swallows the pills, sipping some of the water from the cup, before pouring out the rest into the sink. She puts the cup back in it's spot on the counter and twists the cap onto the prescription bottle, taking it with her out of the bathroom and putting it in it's spot on her dresser. She stares out at the room, taking a deep breath.

Then she exits her bedroom, heading down the stairs to rejoin her dad in the living room.

The next day, Sunday, followed smoothly, they went to see a movie in theaters, had a popcorn fight with the leftover movie popcorn (the mess they had to cleanup was unbelieveable), and had dinner at Applebee's. It was nice to talk with her dad- no, it was great to just have him _there_ and not have to talk to him over the phone because he was in another _country_. Piper tried not to think about him leaving again. It was pushed to the very back of her mind, where it stayed for the most part.

Monday morning started smoothly as well. Piper finally decided that they would spend the day at the outdoor shopping center. They left the house a few hours after waking up, and since arriving, Piper has been visiting shops nonstop. It wasn't really to even shop, it was just to _look_.

Lunch time rolled around and they stopped at a coffee shop, neither really feeling like getting lunch, just something to tide them over. After ordering, they sat down at one of the tables and talked some more.

A permanent smile rests on Piper's face as she tells a story about her friends that had happened while Tristan was away. Ever since it first appeared, Tristan kept giving her these soft, thoughtful smiles. She didn't think anything of it at first, instead telling her story in great detail.

"- and Jason, instead of getting mad, just kind of stands there, shocked, and do you want to know what he did?"

"What did he do?"

"He laughed! He just laughed, and Leo starts laughing too, until we're all laughing. It was really funny," Piper said, throwing her hands up before leaning forward and taking another sip out of her drink.

Tristan chuckled. "Sounds like it."

They were silent for a second, Piper still smiling and reminiscing.

"It's been awhile since I've seen you smile like that," Tristan says softly. "I haven't seen that smile since before... what happened. I'm glad to see it again, Pipes."

Piper bit her lip, still smiling softly. "Yeah. Me too."

The plan had been to stay the whole day, but both of them were starting to get tired. Tristan drove them home, so Piper could rest her head against the window.

The drive back was mostly quiet- the silence only being broken with small bits of conversation every here and there. Piper turned on the radio softly to fill the silence in between each conversations. It wasn't awkward in anyway, it was actually quite comfortable. Piper just hated silences.

Piper had started to think that she was stable- or at least more stable than she had been. When she was still going to the therapist- when she was still… seeing things- hysterical breakdowns were common. Well, not common, but they happened often enough that her breakdowns weren't uncommon. But Piper thought she was _past_ that. Piper thought she was getting _better_. That she was _stronger_. But as they pulled into the driveway, Piper glimpsed at the abandoned house across the street, that no one lived in because it was too broken down or 'haunted', just to see something that made her heart stop.

Something that made her skin _crawl_.

Something that made her _panic_.

A blonde girl stood across the street, standing in front of the house in a sort of… tunic. She looked around for a second, before spotting Piper in the car and they made eye contact. And everything, all the walls Piper had built to save herself, all the resistance, came crumbling down.

It started with the breathing, as it always did. It sped up only slightly at first, as the sinking of Piper's stomach made itself known. That always came second, the sinking feeling. Then her breathing quickened until she was barely breathing, just taking in small gusts of air. Her stomach sunk lower and lower until Piper could practically feel it at her feet, making her feel empty for a split second before panic filled her core, and Piper felt like it would overflow out of her.

Then came the blur.

This always seemed to happen, her senses and emotions would become so overwhelming that Piper would barely know and understand what she was doing. All she ever seemed to know was something was _wrong_ and all she ever seemed to hear was screaming, ear-splitting screaming that was nonstop, with the occasional yelled comfort of 'it's okay' from whoever was helping her at that moment.

Piper didn't remember when she started screaming, all she knew was she _had_ and it was loud, and she wanted it to _stop_. She doesn't remember when she started crying either, but suddenly her eyes were filled with tears and made it difficult to see, the tears had started to pour down her face and something collided with her knees, breaking past her emotions to allow her to grasp a little of what was going on.

She was thrashing around, screaming her head off.

"No, no! She can't- _NO!_ "

"Piper, calm down, it's okay!"

Her dad's hands wrapped around her arms as she thrashed, trying to keep her still, but she _couldn't_. Couldn't he see? Even if she didn't know what was happening, she knew how terrifying this was. How pressing it was.

 _This could not be happening._

"No, don't you see? She's back!" Piper screamed. She thrashed harder, but Tristan managed to keep ahold of her, trying to take her inside.

Tears were still pouring and Piper's throat was starting to ache, but she had to make sure she was _known_ that people could _hear_ her.

"She's _back_! _She's back, she's back, she's_ _ **back**_ _!"_


	4. CHAPTER TWO

" _Hey."_

 _Piper jumped in alarm, eyes widening slightly, her heart racing, and a surprised squeal. She didn't expect anyone else to be in this house, it was abandoned for a reason. She had just come to… get away for awhile. Hazel had been asking almost nonstop about the girl she had supposedly seen. Hazel was a bit of a worrywart._

" _You scared me!"_ _Piper said as she turned around, expecting to see someone else, just someone who was actually_ _ **real**_ _. She wasn't expecting the blonde from the other night to be….standing behind her. How did she get there without Piper noticing?_

" _I can see that," the blonde said. "You okay?"_

 _Piper's eyes were wide and she stared at the blonde. It was weird. She seemed normal, except for the dress she was wearing, one that looked similar to the one she had been wearing the other night. It was something like in Piper's history textbook, something the women would wear way back when the Greeks or Romans still roamed around._

" _Yeah, I'm okay." Piper said quietly. Her eyes were still trained on the blonde._

 _The blonde tilted her head. "Do you remember my name?"_

 _Piper bit her lip. She remembered the girl's name. But the whole 'Hazel couldn't see her' bit scared her, and Piper just wanted to be alone._

 _The girl sighed and gave her a half smile. She opened her mouth, as if to remind her, but Piper reacted almost instantly, cutting her off before she could speak._

" _It's Annabeth, right?"_

 _At the name, there was a sudden, blinding pain, and Piper winced. It was if a floodgate had opened and Piper saw everything she had tried to forget. The better memories came first; gentle smiles, conversations that made her feel happy, the feeling of curiosity. But they were soon tainted as despair of not being believed, the anger and fear of taking the pills she didn't need, and the heartbreak of everything._

 _And then slowly, Piper's mind faded into blank._

Piper stared at her wall, wrapped in a blanket and huddled on her bed. Her face was tear streaked, her eyes were red and puffy, and her throat was sore from the countless of screams that had teared out of her throat. Her father had left her here to calm down, and slowly, she had. Now, she felt numb. She felt absolutely blank.

After a moment, when she was sure she was calm, Piper stood up from her bed shakily with the blanket still around her and left her room, heading down the stairs towards the living room.

When she got there, her dad was facing away from her, looking at something in his hand and holding his face in the other. As she got closer, she realized it was a picture.

Of her mother.

When Piper was born, her mother left. There wasn't anything, no note, no apology. Just a baby girl left on his doorstep. Piper could only recognize the woman as her mother because of the picture her dad was holding. When Piper was five, she came home crying because she didn't have a mommy and she didn't understand what was so wrong with her that she only got one parent instead of two like the other kids. Tristan had kneeled down, pulled out that photo, and held it up in front of her.

"This woman right here," Tristan said, pointing to the woman in the picture. She was smiling so happily and looking out the window wistfully. It used to make Piper happy. "This is your mommy. Your mommy just couldn't stay to love you and give you hugs and kisses. She had to go. But do you know what you have that the other kids don't?"

Piper tilted her five year old head. "What?"

Tristan smiled and kissed her forehead. "A daddy who loves you more than all the other daddies' love their kids."

Five year old-Piper giggled in the memory. The now-Piper just sighed at the memory, before sitting beside Tristan.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. Tristan turned towards her, wrapping his arms around her and just holding her.

"Don't apologize. Did you take your pills this morning?"

Piper nodded and Tristan kissed the top of her head. "Good. It's not your fault, Pipes."

Piper nodded again, feeling so awfully numb still. She shifted the blanket a bit. How could she make this up again? Wasn't she getting _better_? Wasn't she getting _over_ this?

It was silent for a second before Tristan spoke up. "Maybe you should see Dr. Kelley again."

Horror rose up in Piper's chest and suddenly the numb feeling was replaced with panic again. " _No!_ Please, I'm good. It was just a little freak out, that's all."

Tristan sighed. "Okay."

He let go of her and Piper felt the guilt setting in, burying itself in her stomach like a rock. He was only trying to help. He was trying to be _there_ for her. But before she could say anything, to possibly convince him that she would be okay with it and give herself the confidence to do it, Tristan leaned back and pulled out the photo of her mom. Piper remembered sometime when she was eight, he had explained what all had happened with her mother. Piper will never forget how aged he had looked when talking about her. As if that was his biggest 'what if'.

Piper had a lot of 'what if's. She understood how it felt.

"You're a lot like her, you know? You're strong and beautiful." Tristan smiled kind of bitterly. "I don't know how you're managing to heal after all of this, but you are. She'd be proud of you."

Piper stayed quiet as her dad continued to talk about her mom. Telling her about the time they had had together, the fun, the quirks she had, just everything and anything. He never really talked about her mom, it was a sacred kind of subject. But not knowing was okay with Piper, because she didn't _want_ to know. It was like dangling a treat in front of a dog and telling them not to take it. She wanted her mother to be something she could of had, sure, but not something that she knew she was so close to having, but couldn't.

But this was important to her dad. She could tell, it was in the way he talked about her, the way he seemed to be experiencing wonderful memories filled with happiness and love.

So Piper leaned into the couch more and listened to him patiently, nodding along and giving him her full attention.

Anything to make this situation better.

The night was still. The neighborhood was completely silent as a girl slipped out of a house across the street, careful to not make too much noise. She didn't want to be noticed by the dogs, they would draw attention and she didn't want to be noticed. Not tonight. Not now.

A streetlamp shined in the street, giving her the little light she needed to see around her.

It was quite different from the last time she was there, the leaves were green and so was the grass. It smelled airy and it felt warm. The girl took a deep breath of the air, before she turned to close the door, slowly and quietly, careful to make sure the click wasn't so terribly loud.

She made it to the driveway and froze when her foot hit a can and the can went flying, clanging and banging against the asphalt as it went. The girl cursed the pollution and littering as the barking started. It started with one dog, then another, and suddenly every dog nearby was barking and she cursed again before running across the street towards another house, disappearing from sight behind the house.

The dogs quieted down as the girl made her way behind the house, but she no longer had the streetlamp to let her see what was around her. So one false step, and the girl found herself covered in mud.

"Fudge cakes," she whispered harshly. She stood up and tried to rub off some of the mud, but it was no use. This made it even _easier_ to be seen.

The girl grumbled a little bit, but sighed heavily, tilting her head back in exasperation. Her nerves were a jumbled mess, but she tried to put them aside.

"Okay, okay, you got this. You got this."

She stared at the house before nodding to herself. "You got this."


	5. CHAPTER THREE

Piper was tired, the day's events had, reasonably, exhausted her and all she was looking forward to was her warm, comfortable bed. After she said goodnight to Tristan, she practically ran up the stairs in enthusiasm as her entire being seemed to scream ' _sleep_ '. She fell onto her bed, fully intending to fall asleep right then and there.

A loud chime, followed by string of chimes followed, and Piper groaned, getting up on exhausted limbs to search for her cell. She stroked a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed as she picked it up. The phone kept chiming and chiming as message after message piled up and Piper swiped the screen and brought up the messages.

 _Messages (247)_

Piper groaned again. Hazel, Leo, and Jason were all in a group chat with her, and each of them had taken it upon themselves to spam her in a private message, too. Most were proclamations of her 'death' (Leo of course), or worried texts (Jason), or worried theories on what had happened to her (Hazel). With a sigh, Piper replied in their group chat, ignoring the private messages. The dogs next door started to bark loudly, but Piper tried to ignore it.

 _I'm not dead guys, something just happened._

 _I'm gonna go to bed now, though._

 _Goodnight._

Piper placed her phone on the bed, muted so she wouldn't be bothered with any more messages until morning, and got up for her night routine, grumbling as she went.

She prepared for bed in silence, the only noises being the rustling as she moved around. When she reached the point in her routine, Piper hesitated, her hand hovering over the bottle containing her pills for a moment. Her hand twitched, starting to pull back as if she was about to be burned from the surface of the container. A flash of blonde ran through her mind and a mostly forgotten voice echoed in her ears, and Piper squeezed her eyes together as tight as she could, taking the pill bottle in hand and trying to go as quickly as she could.

Piper sighed as she leaned against the counter, staring into the mirror. Kaleidoscopic eyes stared back at her, choppy, brown hair and tan skin moved in time with every slight movement of readjustment. Then she looked a little closer and noticed the broken cracks in the eyes, the tired gleam of the skin, and the messy, uncared for state of the hair. She shook her head at her appearance.

A rustling noise caught her attention from inside her room, and Piper's head whipped around to see what it was. Was her father here? If not, who else would be up here?

Piper's instincts were screaming at her to run, but something rustled again, louder this time, and Piper's curiosity won out as she inched towards the door of the bathroom, peeking out carefully.

There was nothing.

Piper furrowed her eyebrows. Something wasn't right. She knew she had heard something, or someone, moving around out here...

Piper stepped out of the bathroom, looking around carefully. She reached the middle of the room before a familiar voice breathed her name. A voice that echoed in her head constantly for a better part of six months, a voice that was engraved in Piper's mind like words cut into a gravestone.

"Piper," breathed a shadow in her room, and Piper whipped around, staring at the shadow in dismay.

When she was still just staring into the shadow of her poorly lit room, Piper thought she was just imagining it. That it was an after affect from the day's events. But the person in shadows adjusted and Piper caught sight of their face, making her heart skip and her breathing shallow and painful.

" _No_.."

Piper felt old rage bubbling in her throat, as well as a flood of insecurity and despair, all building up like building blocks until Piper felt like she was going to choke. It became too much, and Piper raised an hand to her head to run a hand through her hair, and she stumbled back until she felt the edge of her bed pressing against her legs and she let herself fall onto it, her face now being buried into her hands.

 _"No."_

"I'm sorry."

Piper shook her head, willing the voice to leave her thoughts, willing for this to be a figment of her imagination, before she let out a small, exasperated sigh, looking up from her hands.

She eyed the blonde wrapped in the shadows of her room, trying not to show the droop of her shoulders, or the heart clenching sorrow that followed with seeing her, and the thought of those _damned pills_ and that _damned therapist_.

"Why are you here?"

Annabeth stepped out from the shadows, giving Piper a desperate, pleading look. "Please, I need your help."

"You need _my_ help?" Piper said in disbelief, running through her hair again, getting more and more aggressive by the second. Her lungs felt tight and the rest of her body seemed to be in shock. The only thing still working seemed to be her heart, although it was beating too fast to be normal. "What are you playing at?"

Annabeth sighed. "Please, I can't delay this any longer, it's too important, or else I wouldn't have come here."

"No, no, no!" Piper said, covering her ears and shutting her eyes. "Not again. You're not- you can't be-"

"Real?" Annabeth butted in, sounding exasperated and desperate. She held out her arm. "If I weren't real, would you be able to feel my arm?"

The words sounded hurt and wounded, as if it was _Annabeth_ who had gone through months of hell, as if Piper was hurting _her_.

Piper stared at her outstretched arm, unsure if she was really going to do this. It was stupid- she already knew she wouldn't feel anything, that her hand would go right through Annabeth as if she was made of water. Because Annabeth. Wasn't. Real.

"Go on," Annabeth prompted, looking impatient, as if she had a hundred other things she had to do in a short amount of time.

So hesitantly, Piper did reach out, and knowing she would be met with blank air, she would be met with the sinking fact that Annabeth was a sick, twisted part of her imagination because she was insane, she truly was _crazy_. No one sees people others can't and is fully sane. That was the only logical explanation.

But Piper _wanted_ to be right, too.

So when instead of being met with blank air and the sinking fact, her fingers grazed across warm, skin and something dried that was caked on it. Piper blinked and realized for the first time that Annabeth was covered in mud. Piper jolted in shock, yanking her hand back in alarm and staring at Annabeth's arm in shock.

"I don't…. _What_?"

"I don't have very long, I need to be on my way soon," Annabeth stepped forward carefully, as if scared of frightening Piper away. "I'm real. Okay? And I need your help, it's important."

Piper's mind was too chaotic for her too truly focus. Too many thoughts swirled like hurricanes inside her mind, breaking down walls of reality she knew and damaging everything she thought she knew, and Piper felt like she was going to be sick. How was this _possible_? It just didn't make _sense_ for Annabeth to be real, it didn't make any _sense_ for Piper to be able to see her if others couldn't. Why couldn't others see her?

Annabeth, probably sensing Piper's confusion and inapt behavior, sighed again. "Look, just listen then, okay?"

Piper nodded feebly, not trusting her voice, and raised a hand to her forehead.

"I- I need your help. Something is wrong- my world is sick and dying, and the only clues I have to fix it are in your world, but I'm not familiar with this world. I- I can't _find_ anyone else to help because you're the only known Impure who I know _can_ see me and," Annabeth took a deep, gasping breath, as if she was panicking or something, and Piper's first instinct was to help her but she was too dazed to actually do anything. Her stomach was turning and she felt like puking.

"Please, all you have to do is look at some things and then I'll leave. You won't have to deal with me ever again," Annabeth pleaded with her, and Piper felt the dawning pang of guilt when faced with it.

"Ever?" Piper said, stupidly focusing on that one part. She just… she had to know she could go back to normal after this. All Piper could think of was what would follow after this if she had to acknowledge it and tell her dad, all she could think of was the pills and how she'd have to take several different ones again, all she could think of was Dr. Kelley, the therapist who made her feel so absolutely insane and off-balanced.

All she could think of was how this would _affect_ her life again.

Annabeth's face seemed to drop in the slightest bit, her desperate need was replaced with a hurt gleam in her eyes that Piper couldn't make sense of. Why should Annabeth be hurt? She should not want to see Piper ever again either. "Ever."

Piper bit her lip and thought back to Annabeth's explanation, about her world failing and dying. Then she sighed. "Alright. I'll help you. What's happening, exactly?"


	6. CHAPTER FOUR

Annabeth sighed in relief, most of the tension dropping from her shoulders. But they slowly tensed back up as she started to explain, slowly sitting down on the bed next to Piper, careful to not get any mud on the bed. "Something's wrong with our atmosphere. The council assumed it caused the black veins that started to appear on everyone's skin." Before Piper could comment, Annabeth pulled up her shirt so Piper could look at her stomach.

Swollen, thick, black, ugly veins were going in both directions from Annabeth's belly button, and they seemed to be _pulsing_ as if blood was traveling through them. Due to the wince from Annabeth when she raised her shirt, however, Piper didn't think that it was _blood_ traveling through them.

"When did it start?" Piper asked, reaching out, but not letting herself touch the obviously painful skin.

"About two weeks ago," Annabeth said through gritted teeth as Piper studied the veins. "The council was taking care of it, until…"

Piper waited for Annabeth to continue, studying how the veins moved up to her rib cage before disappearing, but when Annabeth didn't reply, Piper looked up to see the blonde was staring at her, eyes unfocused as if she was deep in thought. Piper cleared her throat. "Until?"

Annabeth's eyes snapped back into focus and the faintest hint of a blush appeared on her cheeks. Piper wasn't sure she wanted to know what she had been thinking of.

"Until, uh, most of them were unable to fully function," Annabeth said, looking away from Piper and staring at the dresser in the back of the room, her shirt still held up. "Apparently, when they reach your heart… you die."

A silence settled between them as Annabeth let Piper process that information. Piper didn't know what to say, what could she say? People were _dying_. Finally, she gathered herself and asked the question that dominated her thoughts.

"How many?"

Annabeth was quiet for a moment, and Piper could see her squeezing her eyes together in what she assumed was pain. "Nine. Nine were dead when I left."

Piper closed her eyes too. She wanted to help, somehow, but how could she? "Is everyone in your world affected?"

"Some more than others," the girl replied. "We've noticed that the older generations are affected faster, presumably because each generation is more pure than the one before-"

"'More pure'?" Piper said, leaning closer in the slightest bit as before her eyes a small part of the vein grew and reached farther up Annabeth's torso. Piper heard a muffled whimper that made her heart ache.

"There's t-too much history for e-everything to make absolute sense right now," Annabeth said, opening her jaw as she tried to relax it. Piper nodded. The veins were pulsing in a way that made Piper wince. That could _not_ be comfortable or pleasant.

"Did you try some medicine on it?" Piper asked, leaning back so she wasn't face to face with Annabeth's stomach, which, now that Piper thought of it, had probably made the other girl uncomfortable. The blonde nodded, but didn't put the shirt back over her stomach, as if trying to keep it open and breathing for as long as possible. It probably hurt to have the shirt rubbing against it.

"Our medicine and herbs have no effect. In some cases, it only made it worse."

Piper hummed a bit in reply, getting up and heading to her bathroom. She knelt down in front of her bathroom cabinet and shuffled some things around in it, before spotting what she was looking for.

"Aha!" Piper said, grabbing the first aid kit. "Let's try this out."

After a bit of debate of whether itch cream or pain relief would work better (it was mostly Piper arguing with herself, as Annabeth was convinced it wouldn't work), Piper decided to try the itch cream first. She took out the small tube and dabbed some onto her finger, looking up at Annabeth with a look of pity and guilt. "This may sting a little."

Piper slowly and gently applied some of the paste on the veins, wincing when Annabeth jolted when she applied a little too much pressure.

"I-it's cold," Annabeth gritted out, but Piper knew that wasn't what happened. She tried to apply gentler, and when all of it was covered, she sat back with a small, reassuring smile.

"And now we wait to see if it works," Piper said, screwing the top back on the tube and adjusting her position so she was facing Annabeth. The blonde dropped her shirt with a half relieved sigh. "In the meantime, what is it that you need _me_ to help with?"

Annabeth turned to look inside a black bag Piper hadn't noticed before, and she pulled out a single sheet of paper and handed it to Piper. "I need you to identify some of these places, if you can."

Piper frowned at the paper, taking it from Annabeth's hand. It was a short list of about eight or nine company names, some of which Piper recognized on the spot. "What do these places have to do with anything?"

"They were plastered on some crates outside the Gate. Why, do you recognize some of them?" Annabeth said hopefully, turning herself to stare at Piper with wide eyes.

Piper's frown deepened and she studied the names more intently. "It's just, most of these are gas companies. Actually, I think _all_ of these are gas companies."

"Gas companies?" Annabeth questioned, tilting her head in obvious confusion. Then her face morphed into understanding. "Oh, I read about those! They sell gases like nitrogen, right?"

Piper nodded. "Do you not have big companies where you're from?"

Annabeth shook her head. "No, we don't have stores, in general. Everyone has their meals together so we don't have to buy food, and clothes are distributed as needed. It's part of being Pure."

"Again, what do you mean 'pure'?" Piper said, looking up from the list at Annabeth. "You've said it twice in that context now and I still don't know what you mean by it."

"My world is.. A lot different from yours," Annabeth said. "We're… I don't know how to explain it."

"It's okay, just give me the basics," Piper said. She was still wary of Annabeth, so she didn't try comforting her. It hadn't sunk in completely.

"Well…" Annabeth started, taking a deep breath. "My world is pure. And I don't mean that negatively, as if we're better than the Impure, I mean it's in our nature. Our genetics are programmed for kindness and sharing. Anything tainted and impure, such as violence and even some chemicals, could possibly kill us."

Piper nodded to let Annabeth know she understood, but she didn't say anything else. It was kind of hard to process, that Annabeth was real and lived in a world of Pure people. Annabeth was real…

 _Annabeth was real_.

Despite having been talking to her for several minutes, Piper felt the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks, forcing her to breath out and stealing the air from her lungs. Annabeth was real, she was right in front of her having a conversation with her. Annabeth was real, she could touch her skin and feel the warmth of it, she was _solid_ , not a hallucination.

 _Holy shit it felt great to be right_.

"Piper?"

The said girl jostled back into reality, blinking once before turning to Annabeth. "Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?"

Annabeth looked suspicious. And worried. "Are you okay?"

"Hm? Yeah, just thinking," Piper said, waving off Annabeth's concern. "Anyways, yeah, these are all gas companies, but some of these are known specifically for one kind of gas… This company, NV Energy," Piper pointed to the name on the list- "got in trouble for selling a gas called Argon without a permit. It was a big deal back then, but they came back with a permit and, as far as I know, are still on the market. Uhm, this one right here," Piper pointed farther down on the list, "makes these cool fluorescent lights and sell leftover argon. My dad was in one of their commercials a few years ago."

Piper went through the list, pointing out their names and explaining their connection to the gas in common, argon, and her connection with it. ANnabeth listened intently, the frown on her face deepening the longer Piper talked. When she asked about it, Annabeth just shook her head and said, "I just don't understand how these companies have anything to do with my world and what's happening."

"Well, like you said, it's got to mean _something_ ," Piper argued. "Why else would the boxes be there?"

Annabeth bit her lip and nodded her head. "I don't know. I'm just not so sure about it anymore. I mean, there were no alarms going off about the air being messed with or anything…"

"I'm sure there's an explanation for that."

Annabeth shrugged, and Piper could tell she hadn't swayed her, but she let it go. This wasn't her quest.

Finally, when Annabeth got all the information she needed from Piper about each company and some locations (the internet was wonderful), she stood up from her spot on the bed, grabbing the list and placing it carefully in the bag, zipping it up and shouldering it in a fluid motion. She gave Piper a half smile.

"Thank you," she said, her voice quiet and Piper had to strain to hear her. "I'll just… go now so you can forget all about this."

Piper felt a pang in her chest, but nodded anyways. She couldn't just let Annabeth go, could she? Now that she knew Annabeth was real and that a lot of people in her world were in danger, could she?

Piper didn't say anything as Annabeth opened her bedroom door, looking back at Piper again. "Thank you," she said again, and Piper muttered a faint 'you're welcome', trying to work up the courage to say something, anything, because she couldn't just _let Annabeth go_. That would make this experience too much like a dream, and since Annabeth _was real_ as far as she was aware of, then she had to do _something_ \- anything!

"Hey wait," Piper heard herself blurt out. Annabeth stopped and turned back to her with a raised eyebrow, but Piper didn't miss the small, hopeful gleam in her eyes, making her want to go even more. "How did you get in?"

Piper wanted to slap herself. Or bang her head against a wall. While she _had_ been wondering that, that was _not_ what she had wanted to say.

Annabeth blinked. "The backdoor was unlocked."

Piper made a small 'o' sound, and Annabeth waved at her, saying goodbye and closing the door.

"Wait, Annabeth! I'll- I'll-" Piper closed her eyes as she heard Annabeth open the door again. "I'll go with you."

"What?"

"I'll go with you, if you'll let me," Piper explained. Before Annabeth could reply, she hurried to explain further. "You can't possibly get to all those places on foot quickly enough. And how will you even find these places? We can use my car to get to places faster and I can use Google Maps on my phone to navigate where we're going."

Annabeth blinked. "Google Maps?"

"It's a technology thing, makes navigating easier," Piper explained. "The only problem, or set back, is that we'll have to wait until tomorrow to leave."

"Why until tomorrow?"

"My dad leaves tomorrow, I can't leave before he does," Piper met Annabeth's gaze with her own, "so what do you say?"

Annabeth stayed silent at the door, staring at Piper in disbelief. Her gaze hardened and her grip on the doorknob tightened, but Piper could tell she was trying to relax. "Why the sudden interest? You realize coming along means you'll have to spend a lot of time with me, right?"

Piper swallowed and nodded. "I-I know. I want to help. It's not… _right_ for me to just move on and forget about this when, even though I never knew they existed until a hour ago, innocent people, _tons of them_ , are dying."

"And you're okay with being around me, the center of all the things you hate, and the person who caused your panic attack earlier today?" Annabeth said quietly. Piper's mouth went dry.

"You saw that?"

Annabeth winced at that. "Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause all of this. I _never_ meant to make anything worse. I just don't know what to do, I wasn't _trained_ for this. I wasn't even _supposed_ to go on this mission, but Clarisse got hit pretty badly and _I_ was the only other person whose been out in this world before."

She stared firmly at the wall behind Piper's head and Piper had the feeling that she was thinking, so she let the silence settle between them, even though she was twitching to break it. Finally, Annabeth let out a sigh, stepping back into the room and closing the door behind her with a gentle _thump_. "Okay. If you think you can handle it, I would really appreciate if you came along. You know more than I do in this area."

Piper gave the tired blonde a half smile, in a sort of reassurance."Okay."


	7. CHAPTER FIVE

Annabeth couldn't believe Piper actually wanted to come along.

Miraculously, the paste that Piper had applied to the veins had reduced the swelling considerably, and Annabeth felt relieved from it. Piper kept the paste out so they could reapply as needed.

Piper, the girl who made her heart ache, decided to share the bed with Annabeth instead of having Annabeth take the floor, which she had been preparing for, claiming that they both needed a good night's rest and the bed was big enough for the both of them. Annabeth had a sneaking suspicion she just didn't want to sleep alone. Which was fine with Annabeth, she didn't think she could sleep alone either. Not after what had happened.

The choppy haired girl had even let her take a shower and borrow some clean clothes since hers were covered in mud.

The shower was nice. It was warm and made Annabeth's shoulders relax nicely, giving her entire body relief. It didn't even aggravate the corrupted skin where the veins laid. Sadly, Annabeth had to leave that small heaven as soon as all the mud was off her skin and out of her hair. She didn't want to take longer than necessary.

As she left the bathroom, in fresh, clean clothes that smelled strongly of Piper and holding a damp towel, the said girl blinked at her from where she was standing over a bag, taking clothes that were on the bed and placing them in the bag. "Wow, that was quick. I was expecting you to take a longer shower, mine are usually two times as long."

"I didn't want to use more than necessary," Annabeth said, feeling her face heat up until she felt like her cheeks were _boiling_. Annabeth wanted to hide her face. "Anyways, do you need any help with packing?"

"No thanks, I think I'm good," Piper replied, biting her bottom lip. She seemed kind of jumpy and her voice was quiet. A blanket, or two, and some other supplies were placed in another bag. "I just need to finish with these clothes and grab stuff from the bathroom. Put the towel in the black basket over there and just sit down or something, and talk me through the plan. Where are we heading first?"

Annabeth blinked, but still complied to what Piper had asked of her, folding the towel and dropping it into the basket before taking a spot on the bed. "The closer ones would probably be best. Which ones are the closest?"

"The one that's in California, Green Gases I think it's called. Now, once we're there, how are we finding out information?"

Annabeth felt the fading blush come back at full force. "I hadn't gotten there, yet."

"Oh, okay," Piper said nonchalantly. "That's okay, we'll come up with a plan on the road. Santa Monica is about six hours from here. Do you know what information we should be looking for?"

The blush deepened further and Annabeth realized how stupid it was of her to have been planning to run into this headfirst without a plan of any sort. "No."

Annabeth looked at her lap and Piper chuckled, making Annabeth's heart chuckle because she loved her laugh, but also clench because she didn't know if she was laughing _at_ her.

"It's okay that you don't know yet, Annabeth. Your world is in trouble and you want to do something about it," Piper said softly, and Annabeth felt her heart warming up considerably. Two hours ago Piper had been crying and looking sick at the sight of her. Now she was _comforting_ her. "I think we should be looking for who ordered a mass order of argon in the past two or three weeks."

"Why argon?" Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. She still didn't understand what that had to do with anything, they should be looking for the person who did this.

"That's the gas I know all of them are known for selling," Piper explained, placing the last shirt in the bag before she proceeded to the bathroom. Annabeth could see her reaching into the shower curtains and grabbing a few bottles from there, then changing her mind and putting three of them back. "If I'm right in thinking that has something to do with all of this, all of the companies will have sold a bunch of argon and if we can track the buyer, maybe we can find who's behind everything and how to stop them."

Annabeth felt like worshipping Piper at this moment. She also felt like kissing her, but she put that urge far, far down. Now was not the time or place for that.

The blonde sighed. "I'm glad you were thinking of that, it went completely over my mind."

Piper shrugged awkwardly from in the bathroom, getting the bathroom ready for the next day, Annabeth assumed. "You just need to slow down and think of the details. You can't save anything by rushing into it."

Piper seemed so wise in that moment, and Annabeth felt her chest swell up with emotion. She watched as some of Piper's dazzling brown hair fell into her face as she bent over the counter, placing things into a bag.

Annabeth couldn't wait to get on the road with Piper at her side.

Truly, Annabeth felt like they should have left right away, gotten on the road without wasting a second, but ever since this whole thing had started, Annabeth's emotions were thrown off and she had started getting more and more impatient. Plus, Annabeth understood why they were staying overnight.

That didn't mean she wasn't overly anxious to be heading out.

"Alright, that's everything that I can pack for tonight- the rest will have to be last minute in the morning," Piper said to herself, just loud enough for Annabeth to hear, smacking her hands together as if wiping off dust after putting the smaller bag into the bigger one. "Now to hide the bag so my dad doesn't see them if he happens to come in."

After looking around for a moment, Piper picked up the bag and shoved it under the bed. "There. Now time for sleep."

Piper waved Annabeth to the end of the bed, already lifting the duvet so she could slip under them, and Annabeth obeyed, copying her on the other side of the bed. The bed was so big, Annabeth and Piper could lay down and have room for three other people to snuggle in with them. As she got in the bed, Piper picked up the small rectangular thing Annabeth had noticed earlier and attached it to a cord on the her side of the bed.

"What's that?" Annabeth asked, eyes widening as the small rectangle lit up when it was plugged in.

"It's my phone, it sends messages to other people and lets me talk to people over a distance," Piper explained, but when Annabeth's confused look didn't let up, she yawned and waved it off, "Don't worry about it. Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite."

Piper rolled over, her back facing her and Annabeth blinked.

"What?"

"Nothing, just- good night."

"Good night, Piper."

" _Why are you here this time?"_

 _Annabeth grinned at the girl. "What, am I not allowed to say hi?"_

 _Piper raised an eyebrow at her, but continued to work on her flower crown. At least, that's what Annabeth thought she was doing, but it was all wrong and she needed a base. But Piper was so focused, Annabeth didn't say anything about it, instead watching quietly as she bit her lip in concentration, carefully weaving two flower stems together before replying."You are, it's just, you never come by just to say hi. You always have questions you think only I can answer. Also, you always come around when no one else is. Why is that?"_

 _Annabeth's smile dimmed and she sat down next to Piper. When she first started coming around, she convinced Piper that the house had been dark and that's why her friend hadn't been able to see her._

" _She probably wasn't looking for anyone in the shadows," Annabeth had explained to her. "But you were."_

 _After that, Annabeth made sure to approach the choppy haired girl when there wasn't anyone else around._

" _Well I decided to just say hi this time. And the rest is… complicated."_

 _Piper nodded, still working on her project. "Ah. Well- damnit," she cursed as the stems she was entwining fell apart, and she was just holding a pile of flowers, "that's like the fifth time this is happened."_

" _What are you making?"_

 _PIper sighed, picking up the remnants of the flowers. "It's supposed to be a flower crown. He said I was too tom boy and that I wouldn't be able to make one, and I got mad so I challenged him to a flower crown contest. But I don't know how to_ make _a flower crown." Piper sighed heavily, starting to weave them together again. "Not the best decision I've made."_

 _Annabeth giggled. "You need a base to start out with, that's all. Here, let's go get some sticks."_

 _And like that, Annabeth was helping Piper make a flower crown, laughing lightly when she didn't get something and messed up, reaching over to show her what she did wrong. Piper laughed with her._

 _Annabeth missed days like these. She'd been dreaming about these days for months after._

 _Because nothing good seems to last._

 _The dream started to melt into another one, one of Annabeth's nightmares. But she could still feel the bright sun on her skin. She could see herself and Piper making flower crowns, laughing together. But when she looked around, a frightened, tear stained Piper was screaming, holding her head in her hands._

" _Piper! It's okay, I'm sorry!" Annabeth heard herself shout. It was like she was watching herself do these things._

 _She wanted to tell herself to not bother, she'd had this dream countless of times before. No matter what she says or what she does, Piper keeps on crying, she keeps screaming and soon enough her screams are the only thing echoing in her ears, she can't feel the sun's warmth anymore, she can't hear their laughter over a flower crown, and everything hurts because Piper keeps_ screaming _and soon enough Annabeth is crying with her._

 _Faces flashed in the front of Annabeth's mind and suddenly the dead, lifeless bodies of everyone from her world laid at her feet and on top…._

 _Piper lied on top of the heap of mangled bodies, thick veins visible_ everywhere _on her body, her eyes open and dull._

" _No, no!"_

"Annabeth? Annabeth!"

Annabeth jolted awake so suddenly that she jumped and felt herself falling, and for a split second she wondered if she had been on the edge of a cliff, when Piper's bedroom floor collided with her side and she let out a short yelp of pain.

"Are you okay there?"

Annabeth opened her eyes sleepily, her eyes feeling irritated and swollen, and looked up to where Piper was peeking over the side of the bed at her. She blinked and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm- I'm fine, just got startled."

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," Piper said sheepishly. "It's just, you were whimpering and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm okay, it was just a dream," Annabeth said, her eyes feeling dry and she sniffed. She only half remembered the dream, but what she remembered made a shiver run down her spine. "Do you need me to do anything?"

"Oh, uhm, well it's like, three am at the moment, so the only thing I need you to do is to get back up here and go back to sleep. Peacefully this time, you'll be exhausted and miserable tomorrow if you don't."

Annabeth blinked, only just realizing how dark the room was, and how shadows casted themselves over Piper's face like a drape. The brightest thing in the room was Piper's eyes.

Annabeth was so in love, it wasn't funny.

She let out a small 'oh', pushing herself up until she climbed back into the bed as Piper moved back into her spot. Her entire side that she fell on felt bruised, and unfortunately that was the side she had been sleeping on before. So she faced towards Piper instead.

Maybe she'd wake up before Piper and get to see her sleeping face.

She probably had a really cute sleeping face.

Annabeth closed her eyes. "I'm sorry for waking you, Piper," she whispered and she saw Piper's head shake, indicating a 'no'.

"It's fine, you didn't mean to. Besides, it's not easy for someone to control their dreams."

"I'm still sorry," she said a little louder, but not any louder than a quiet voice. "Are you sure you want to come along tomorrow?"

The answer was immediate. "Yes. Now enough talking, we both need sleep. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Piper."


	8. CHAPTER SIX

**wow it's been awhile lmao. my bad guys, here's chap six and i think chap seven will come after :)) enjoy!**

* * *

Piper didn't want her dad to leave.

With her dad, she discovered, Piper could forget that she was going to be on a mission to save a dying world. That the girl who no one else could see was back and that she was going to go save the world with her. But Piper knew he had to go. She wouldn't be able to go through with this if he did.

So at one in the afternoon, Piper tucked a hand in each of her back pockets, rocking on her heels as her dad checked in with the plane crew, making sure everything was as it should be. She had Annabeth stay at her house and wait for her to come back so they could pack up and leave first thing. Annabeth didn't seem to mind being left at her house. She claimed it was nothing, but Piper guessed she probably didn't like being with people who couldn't see her.

Figures.

Tristan turned around from where he had been talking with a crew member, walking back over to her with a sad smile on his face. It made Piper's heart pang.

"I'll see you in a few weeks, yeah?" He said as he reached her, and Piper nodded in reply. Tristan kissed her forehead and embraced her in a hug. Piper returned it immediately.

"I love you," she whispered as they hugged, and Tristan squeezed her a little.

"I love you too, Pipes."

He pulled away and took a step back, then another. "I'll call you. Don't stay up too late, and I'll see you when I get back in July."

"Okay. I'll see to it that you do. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Tristan said, taking another few steps backward before turning around and boarding the jet. He waved back at her and ducked into the plane, followed behind by a flight attendant. With a sad smile, Piper turned and started her way to her car.

And just like that, Piper was ready to go.

When Piper got back, Annabeth was sitting in her living room awkwardly, the bags Piper packed and her own at her feet. Piper found it amusing how straight Annabeth was sitting up, as if she was avoiding the back of the couch like it could give her a disease. She cleared her throat from where she stood, leaning against the door frame. "You ready?"

Annabeth nodded a bit too excitedly, scrambling to her feet and grabbing both her bag and one of Piper's, reaching to grab the other one but Piper stopped her. "I can get my bags, don't worry."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, you go on out to the car. I need to grab something from upstairs."

Annabeth nodded again and did as she was instructed, shouldering her bag as she made her way to the door and Piper ran up the stairs, making her way to the bathroom. When she reached the counter, her fingers ghosted over the surface on the pills she had despised since day one. She hadn't packed them before, thinking she didn't even _need_ them. There wasn't a purposed for them anymore, now that she knew that she had been right.

Still, Piper hesitated.

Then in one swift motion, she picked up the pills and gripped them tightly in her hand and headed back down stairs, stuffing it in the pocket of one of the bags. She grabbed the rest of her bags, before proceeding outside. When she got there, Annabeth had stopped, staring at the car and all its glory in awe.

"Do you not have cars in your world?" Piper asked curiously, setting her bags down to unlock and open the trunk of her beloved Jeep. Annabeth shook her head in response.

"No, we don't have machinery in my world. We rely on… something else," Annabeth said as she loaded her bag into the trunk.

Piper hummed in reply and they packed and organized their things neatly. It reminded Piper a little of the time she had tried to go camping with her friends- and completely over packed.

Piper didn't like to forget anything. Being the daughter of an actor who travels a lot, she liked to make sure she had everything for anything and everything she might need.

When the packing was done and the trunk was closed, Piper glanced at her house and realized for the first time that this might be the last time she would get to see the house that had become her home in a while and she felt a pang of sadness. She made sure to say goodbye to it mentally, not wanting to sound completely insane. She'd had enough of that for a lifetime.

Annabeth was already in the passenger seat when Piper got in on her side, trying to figure out how the seat belt worked. She kept pressing the release as she put the buckle in, causing it to retract backwards and making Annabeth frown. The sight made Piper want to laugh.

"Here, it's like this," Piper took the buckled from Annabeth gently, buckling her seatbelt properly. "You only press the button when you want to unbuckle."

Annabeth's mouth took on an 'o' shape and Piper chuckled, buckling her own seat belt and started the Jeep's engine. Then she pulled out her phone and pulled up the company's address into Google Maps.

"Starting route," Siri's voice blurted out, making Annabeth jump and stare at it in shock, "to 3264 Colossal Road."

Piper blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Let's do this."

The ride was long.

During the awfully long ride, Piper taught Annabeth how to one; work the radio, two; introduced her to a few road trip games, treated the still growing veins on the blonde's stomach with some Benadryl cream, and managed to create a plan of action once they were at their destination.

"I'll distract and you go through the files," Piper suggested, glancing quickly at Annabeth, not daring for long to keep her eyes off the road. "Just look for a load of argon being bought. It should only take a few minutes."

"Why don't we just ask?"

"It's a customer's private policy thing," Piper explained. "People needed to know that what they did was not concern to anyone than the person or people they were buying from, so they won't willingly tell you. Thus, we sneak in and steal the info."

"Is that just a shorter version of saying 'information'?"

Piper grinned proudly. "Yeah, we're a pretty lazy bunch, here."

From the corner of her eye, Piper could see Annabeth shake her head in disbelief and it made her grin deepen.

The rest of the ride was spent in semi-silence, the radio being the only noise in the car as they passed mile marker by mile marker along the highway. As each passed by, Piper felt her skin heating up, becoming more uncomfortable by the minute. Her skin was becoming sticky and her grip on the wheel began to falter and she had to continually wipe off her hands. Then her headache began, first lightly, until it pounded a bit too forcefully and Piper hissed, resisting the urge to hold her head, unwilling to let go of the wheel in the middle of the road.

"I need to pull over," she heard herself say to Annabeth, already moving the car from the highway to the nearest exit which, fortunately, was just coming up as she started to feel absolutely _sick_. Annabeth gave her a concerned look and said something, but Piper didn't process it, too focused on maneuvering the car and keeping herself from puking in the car.

By the time she pulled into a gas station just off the highway exit, she had barely parked the car before she was out of the vehicle, spilling the contents of her stomach onto the parking space next to hers, feeling so absolutely _sick_.

"Oh my heavens, are you okay?!" Piper heard as Annabeth struggled to unbuckle herself and a second later (or maybe a minute or two, Piper couldn't focus on anything other than the utterly horrible feeling that was settled inside her stomach) Annabeth came beside her, a gentle hand on her back as Piper panted, trying to recover. Unable to answer, she threw up again, and Piper's mouth felt absolutely _revolting_ as she managed to stop throwing up, sitting back on her knees and tilting her head up to the sky, eyes closed, and tried to keep her mouth from closing because she didn't want to be stuck tasting _that_ until she found a water bottle or something.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked again quietly from beside her, her hand still resting on Piper's lower back, which she was painfully aware of. Piper shook her head, making a move to stand up. Annabeth let her, even offering her hand to help her, which Piper gladly took.

"I'll be okay, I just need to get a water bottle from this place and clean myself up," Piper said, still feeling utterly horrible, but at least her stomach didn't want to chuck it's contents anymore. She supposed that was a plus.

"Do you have any cloths or anything?" Annabeth's voice was still quiet, but she sounded determined to do something and Piper was too tired to tell her that she needn't have bothered.

"In the seat beside the one with the wheel is a compartment. In there should be some napkins," Piper told her, spitting onto the ground because it was just too gross. She couldn't even look at the former contents of her stomach that splattered on the ground in front of her. The thought made her feeling like throwing up, but not because she felt sick. Piper took a step back from the mess.

Annabeth came back with napkins, even though Piper didn't remember her leaving, offering them to Piper, who gave her a half smile in thanks. She wiped the lower half of her face, balling it up when she was done and throwing it away in a nearby trash can. Piper checked her pockets to make sure she had her wallet before gesturing to the gas station and letting the blonde know she'd be back and to wait in the car. In turn, the blonde nodded, following the given instructions as Piper went and bought a water bottle for herself. After hesitant second, Piper bought a second one for Annabeth.

As Piper left, she washed out her mouth with the water, shaking her head and feeling a shiver go down her spin. Vomiting was a nasty business. Literally and figuratively.

Piper didn't look back at the mess as she hopped into the car, not exactly sure what to do about it. She didn't want to just leave it for the sorry sod who had to clean it up, but she didn't want or know how she was going to do it herself. So Piper simply didn't pay it any attention.

"I grabbed you a water bottle too, if you want it," Piper said, putting the two bottles into the middle console. Annabeth nodded.

"Thank you. Are you alright now?"

"I think so."

"What happened?"

In all honesty, Piper had no idea. She was feeling just fine until then. Her head was still throbbing and her skin was still partly clammy, so she didn't ponder on it all too much. Instead, she shrugged.

"No idea. We should head out, though, it'll be almost nine when we get there. Are you ready to go?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I think we should let you rest for a minute, you look extremely pale," Annabeth frowned. "Also, you felt extremely warm earlier, so I doubt much has changed now."

Piper wanted to argue, but Annabeth held up a hand. "Come on, Piper, you need to rest. You'll be miserable if we go now and it'll be harder to do this."

Cursing, Piper had to admit she was right. She wouldn't do them any good if she wore herself out now, making them pull over several times more and delaying them longer than needed. So Piper leaned back and sighed. "Okay, but only for a few minutes. I don't want to be driving into a hotel parking lot at ten thirty at night."

"Alright."

They ended up pulling into a small motel called _24/7 Motel_ in Santa Monica around nine-forty, thankfully not needing to pull over anymore. Piper's skin was still clammy, which concerned her, but the headache and nausea hadn't come back. So far, at least.

Piper arranged their room pretty quickly, thankfully, and soon she and Annabeth started to get things from the car. They were both hoping that the staff member in there didn't see a random, floating bag carrying itself through the lobby. That would definitely be interesting.

Annabeth eyed the hotel wearily. "Are you sure we should spend the night at a…"

"Motel," Piper supplied helpfully. "And yes, I mean, what could go wrong? Plus, I already paid for the room, so we might as well use it."

Annabeth still seemed weary, adjusting her pack and one of Piper's awkwardly. "I dunno, this place… something doesn't seem right."

"It'll be fine," Piper tried to reassure her, taking the lead into the hotel once again and thankfully, despite her concerns, Annabeth followed behind her. They snuck past the staff and the lobby without being noticed too terribly. No one screamed at the fact that a bag was carrying itself, at least. They got into their room without any problems, and Piper felt a rush of comfort at seeing a bed. She was tired from sitting in a car for almost seven hours, which made no sense really, but Piper didn't question it. Instead, she dropped face first onto the bed with a sigh, hearing Annabeth chuckle from somewhere behind her.

Bed routine be damned, Piper was _not_ leaving this surprisingly comfortable bed until the next morning.

She sighed contently, snuggling into one of the pillows and closing her eyes. As she felt herself slipping from reality into her favorite world of sleep, she noticed the sudden change of light on the back of her eyelids, someone chuckled and something warm press against her right cheek.

"Goodnight, Piper," was the last thing ringing in Piper's mind as she fell asleep.

Slowly, then all at once.

Piper stared at the wall of the motel room with tired eyes, feeling like she was going to cry, half from the nightmare she had just awoken from and half because she was just so damn _tired_.

Her dreams had started out so peacefully, she was with her dad and her friends and everything was so _calm_. She had felt content and warm.

But of course, it turned on her pretty quickly.

There were flashes of parts of her life, the first time she had gone to see the therapist, the feeling of despair when she was given the pills she had to take every morning and night, the hatred that had started to build against her therapist.

The main bits, however, were flashes of fear and panic that made Piper's skin crawl just _thinking_ about it.

And just before she woke up, Annabeth's face was engraved on the back of her eyelids, her expression grim and hurt. Piper remembered when she had seen that look on the blonde's face. She also remembered how torn up she had been. She was crying and screaming and everything _hurt_ so much. Piper had woken up with a gasp, too quiet to alert the sleeping blonde in the next bed.

Piper scratched her chest, just over her heart, hard as if that would soothe it's rapid beating. It didn't do anything but make her skin turn pink in irritation, yet she continued to do it, until she was scratching harshly and wildly. A frustrated scream built up in her throat and Piper wanted nothing more than to let it out and disturb the silence, but the gentle breathing from the other bed kept her from it.

So Piper kept quiet, swallowing the scream and staring harder at the wall, forcing herself to stop scratching and abstain from scarring the skin with her nails. She was tired, her skin was sticky, she just wanted to _sleep_.

But she stared, and she stared, and she stared at the spot on the wall until her eyes were too heavy to keep open. Piper let them close, happily letting sleep wash over her like waves.

When she woke up again, it was to a crash and a squeal in their hotel room, and Piper sat up quickly in response, looking around for the cause.

Turns out, Annabeth was trying to get ready quietly while Piper was still asleep, just to trip over one of Piper's bags and crash onto the floor of the bathroom. Piper apologized sheepishly for leaving it in the middle of the floor. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt badly.

Piper had rented the room for two nights, assuming they'd want more rest before they headed out for the next trip, which they had decided should be the one in Phoenix, Arizona, called Natural Gas Nation. Hopefully that would only end up taking an hour or less so they could continue to New Mexico.

The first thing Piper realized, after getting ready for the events of the day, was her stomach growling, alerting her that she and Annabeth both hadn't eaten since yesterday. The second thing she realized was the dull throb on the back of her forehead.

Wincing, Piper rubbed at her forehead before looking over at Annabeth, who was preparing herself for the day in a simple t-shirt and leggings.

"Hey, you want to go down to breakfast with me?" Annabeth looked up at her and tilted her head. "They have some in the lobby and we haven't exactly eaten at all lately…"

Annabeth's face brightened with realization. "Oh, yeah right. Uhm, sure."

In the lobby, Piper piled her plate with most of the foods they had. Sausage, eggs, some French toast sticks. Anything and everything.

Annabeth stared at all the food with shocked eyes, tilting her head at the labels of each one, seeming completely confused.

"What…. _Is_ some of this stuff?" The blonde asked Piper as she looked over the hash browns. "I've never seen it before."

Piper chuckled to herself as Annabeth looked at the pancakes in shock. "It's food. You know, the stuff that fuels our bodies and everything?"

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "How is this food? Sure it might of been food _once_ but now it's been dosed and covered in something shiny and oily. How is this appeasing?"

Piper shrugged, taking her plate to a table, Annabeth following right behind her. She hadn't picked anything up, but by the look on her face, Piper didn't think she _wanted_ to.

"C'mon, you have to eat. You'll need and want it." Piper said, hoping that would prompt Annabeth to eat something. She held up the extra fork she had gotten and held it out to Annabeth. "I can't eat all this by myself."

Annabeth frowned at the fork, instead putting her arms on the table. "Thank you, but I'll just eat something from my bag upstairs. I'm not actually sure what this food would… do to me, you know?"

Piper bit her lip, but nodded all the same. She understood. Sort of. Annabeth didn't want to take any risks. Then Piper frowned. "Wait, you have food in your bag?"

"It's Pure food, it helps us stay pure. It also has all the vitamins, proteins, and nutrients you need. It's uhm, one of the first things we tried to use to heal some of the sick. It didn't exactly… work."

"What happened?"

Annabeth sighed, tracing something on the surface of the table absent-mindedly, but her focus stayed on Piper. To the side, Piper noticed someone eyeing her strangely, obviously thinking she was talking to herself. Piper tapped the bluetooth she had brought along and made a face as if she was in a boring phone call. The stranger blushed and looked away, letting Piper's attention go back to Annabeth. "It worked at first, sort of, it seemed to stop the growth of the veins, and we actually thought maybe if we found out what was happening, no one else would have to die. But then…"

Piper watched her intently, still eating her food, but fully invested in what was being said by Annabeth. Annabeth sighed again under her gaze, eyes straying from hers and onto the table where her finger was still tracing shapes, and Piper felt a familiar pang in her chest. The blonde looked tired. She looked like a weight was resting on her shoulders, each side getting heavier one after the other.

"Then?"

Annabeth inhaled slowly, looking up at Piper's eyes again. "They- they started to have problems breathing and supporting themselves. We- we weren't _prepared_ for something like that. Eventually, it led to choking and the veins suddenly started to grow _faster_ , as if every joke just added another vein until they had choked for so long that it reached their heart…"

Piper sucked in a breath.

"And then they died."

The blonde broke eye contact again, instead favoring the table top and tracing her shapes on the surface. Piper processed the information quietly. Was that how most of them had died?

She picked at her eggs, leaving them both in silence. What was Piper supposed to say? She was never very good at comforting people, and now was no exception.

Piper puffed her cheeks and let out a breath. "We'll do all we can, yeah? _I'll_ do all I can, and I know you will too. We can do this. It just might be… a while."

Annabeth nodded, showing she heard her and Piper ended up finishing her breakfast in silence.


	9. CHAPTER SEVEN

**anddd here's chapter seven! big thanks to all of those who left comments on the story and to annabethtalkstoolives for DM-ing me about this :)) i love this story but ended up not continuing. here's to hoping i can get back into it! will also be posting this on ao3!**

Annabeth had no idea what she was doing

Nothing in her textbooks back home had prepared her for working a computer. Sure, she knew how to turn _on_ one, but she was absolutely clueless when it came to any of what Piper was trying to tell her to do.

"In the computer's files," Piper was saying, turning the wheel and the car responded to her, "You should be able to search up 'mass argon buyer'. It'll come up and then you can print out the information out and we'll leave without them realizing anything happened. Make sure to close out of all the tabs you opened, by the way, or else they'll know something's up. Companies are paranoid that way."

Maybe Annabeth should let her know she had no idea what she was doing.

Instead of doing so, Annabeth just nodded as Piper stopped the car in between two lines in front of a concrete walkway.

This was probably going to go horribly.

Piper nodded to herself, before looking at Annabeth with those wonderful multicolored eyes. If she let herself, Annabeth would probably drown in their gaze. But she didn't, instead sharing the other girl's gaze. "You ready?"

Annabeth nodded, trying not to make eye contact, no matter how uncomfortable it made her.

"Alright let's go," Piper got out of her seat, sliding smoothly out of it and Annabeth tried to follow, but ended up tripping out of the car with a little squeak. Face burning, Annabeth righted herself and closed the door. She joined Piper on what she learned was a 'sidewalk'.

Piper smiled, amused, before she started leading the way into the building, Annabeth following behind her like a loyal puppy.

Inside the lobby of NV Energy was elegant- there were strange designs Annabeth had never seen before that seemed to go together, the entire room was large and spacious, making her feel small and tiny compared to it.

She made sure to keep in pace with Piper, who was actually dressed for the occasion, in the same fancy shirts and pants, and even though no one should be able to see her, she felt out of place among all the others wearing skirts, the dress pants, and the tuxes. She tugged on the sleeve of the t-shirt she never wore in public back home, looking around in curiosity and soaking in every single detail of the room.

"Go to the back, over there," Annabeth heard Piper say under her breath, gesturing over to a door that was swinging open. "There should be someone's computer back there or something. If there's someone there, poke your hand out and give me a thumbs down and I'll cause a commotion. You ready?"

Annabeth nodded.

"Ready, set… go."

Annabeth stalked to the door, sliding through the door as inconspicuous as possible. She left the door cracked so she could get back out, and alert Piper of what was happening, and was faced with two closed doors with windows on each side. Annabeth blinked at the words written on the windows and the doors, some of the words going over her head. 'Risk Management Specialists' made her especially confused. Who would build something that could possibly show any risks?

She peeked into the Marketing Managements office, only to see someone sitting there, jabbing away at a computer. The blonde bit her lip, cracking open that door, and then doing the same with the Risk Management's door, before stepping back to the door and sticking her hand through it, giving a thumbs down. Whether or not Piper got her message, Annabeth didn't know until she heard a scream, and something, or someone, fall to the ground. Both doors swung open, revealing a man and a woman hurrying towards her. Annabeth stepped out of the way as they hurried through the door, and more screaming followed, along with crashing and sounds of something crashing on the ground, and then she snuck into the Marketing Management's office without hesitation.

Annabeth took a few hesitant steps further into the room, staring at the desk cautiously. The computer was still on, and the person's recent screen was still present, thankfully being logged in. Annabeth had no idea what she was supposed to do if it wasn't.

The computer's screen dimmed and Annabeth had a suspicion it would turn off if she didn't do something. So, being the great, fearless person she _so_ obviously was, Annabeth pressed one of the buttons and flinched back.

But all the screen did was light back up in response. Annabeth frowned. Interesting.

She leaned in closer to the screen, studying the words written across the screen in fascination. Many words stuck out at her, ones that she didn't know the meaning of, but nothing said anything about argon, or a massive buyer.

She tried typing in the two keys Piper taught her to, the ones that said ctrl and f, which Piper said would make a little 'search bar' appear in the upper right hand side of the computer. A blank space with the faint, gray words 'search' appeared and Annabeth typed in 'massive agron buyer'. Nothing happened, and Annabeth frowned. Why wasn't anything happening?

On the keyboard, she noticed an enter button, but couldn't remember why it had caught her attention. Hadn't Piper said something, _anything_ , about it?

" _You press enter if it's not coming up already,"_ Piper's voice flashed in her mind. " _It lets the search bar know that you're done typing and ready for a search."_

Oh.

That's where she had heard it.

Annabeth pressed the enter button and suddenly, the computer screen jumped to a whole different place, the highlighted words 'argon buyer' showing on the screen. Annabeth's heart was beating wildly in her chest. Was it really that simple?

She went ahead and sent it to the printer, using the instructions Piper had told her earlier, and the searched a few other 'keywords' Piper had said for her to use, including 'massive buyer' and 'argon transaction'. She printed out those. She clicked out of the search box she was in and grabbed the last paper as it finished printing (she wanted so badly to marvel and study it, but she knew she didn't have the time. Maybe Piper would show her a different one sometime) just as the door opened again, revealing the woman from earlier who had run out of this office. Annabeth held her breath, though she doubted it was necessary, as the woman made her way over to the desk, sitting back down and frowning at the screen.

"I don't remember getting that far," she mumbled to herself. "Must've happened when I jumped up."

She started typing on the computer as if nothing had happened, and Annabeth left the room as quickly as she could, leaving the _building_ as quickly as she could and meeting up with Piper back at the car.

Piper's hair was a bit frizzy and when she talked, her voice was a little squeaky, so Annabeth assumed it was _her_ who had been screaming.

"Did you get anything?" Piper asked her in the squeaky voice. Annabeth held up the papers with one hand.

"Yeah, I got them."

"Well that was a complete waste," Piper grumbled under her breath, clutching onto the steering wheel almost angrily as she drove them back to the hotel. How did they find _absolutely nothing_? Surely there had to of been _something_ , but when Piper had scanned over the paper of information that they had gotten, there was nothing suspicious. About _any_ of it.

Annabeth was clutching the papers tightly beside her, glancing over the details with wide eyes, trying to find anything. She looked up and shook her head at Piper. "I'm not finding anything else. None of it makes any sense to me."

Piper bit her lip, trying not to clench her jaw as she did so. They had almost gotten found out, especially when Piper had tried to go back in to see what was taking Annabeth so long, and barely made it out without someone realizing they were even in there collecting information, and there was _nothing_?

Piper didn't quite understand why she was so very frustrated or why this bothered her so much, but she felt like screaming again and kicking something. But she refrained from doing so, not wanting to cause them to crash.

Annabeth must've sensed her frustration and quiet fuming, because she tried to lay a hand on Piper's arm in an effort to calm her down and Piper was tempted to shrug her off.

But Annabeth's comforting hand actually made her feel a little better, a little more down to Earth, so Piper let her keep her hand there.

"Hey, it's okay, when we get back you can look more closely and if there's nothing then we'll just look at the rest of the companies, yeah?" Annabeth said in a somewhat soothing voice. It didn't help Piper's irritation, but she was thankful the blonde was trying, even if half of her wanted to snap at the blonde that she needed to leave her alone. Letting out a shaky breath, Piper attempted to reign in her anger, taking several more deep breaths to no avail. She wasn't even sure _why_ she was so upset. Like Annabeth had pointed out, there wasn't anything major about it. So what? They still had eight other companies they could go to. It wasn't the end of the world.

Yet then, It felt like that. It _really_ felt like that.

Piper just nodded in reply to Annabeth and kept silent the rest of the way to the hotel, still feeling stiff and agitated.

She pulled into the parking lot, slamming her door harder than meant to, and leading the way to their hotel room.

When they got there, Piper let out a huff and started to repack her bag, mostly just to have something to do and it wouldn't matter if she took her anger out on it. She also would have an excuse to not look at those blasted papers of information that seemed to be useless. She had no idea what Annabeth was doing, too focused on her task at hand and calming herself down. So when Annabeth spoke up out of the blue from where she had been sitting on the bed next to her, she jumped a little in surprise.

"Maybe we should just head out now. It's," Annabeth looked out the window. Piper had opened the curtains at some point, to let in the sun. Now all it did was annoy her, "a little after noon and we could get there at five or six tonight and maybe collect information from the next company."

Piper shook her head. She couldn't deal with another car ride at the moment. She didn't want to lash out with this sudden, not-exactly-fueled rage. "No, we'll just be tired. We can hit up two tomorrow or something. Besides, I want to get my use out of this room, since I paid for two nights."

"Okay. Tomorrow morning then."

Piper nodded, leaning back and running her hands over her legs. "I'm going to order something for lunch. Do you want anything, or are you still not sure how it'll end up?"

Piper hadn't seen it, but apparently earlier Annabeth had eaten the food from her backpack instead of eating from downstairs. Piper didn't know how she felt about that. She didn't seem to eat much, and in her world ( _this_ world) that usually signalled anorexia or grief.

"I'll just eat the Pure food," Annabeth said, already reaching for her bag. Then she paused and straightened back up. "I don't think the food here will help with the veins."

"Are those bothering you again?" Piper said, stopping from grabbing her phone from on the nightstand and instead changing direction and reaching for her bag. "We can put more Benadryl cream on it."

"Kind of. It's more of this dull throb and slight itching but…"

Piper went through her bag, pulling out the small tube of Benadryl from the side pocket. She handed it to Annabeth. "Just a little on all of it and make sure to rub it in. Should work."

Annabeth nodded, taking the tube in hand and heading to the bathroom with it. And Piper reached for her phone to search up the nearest pizza place.

Something was off. Piper could tell the moment she woke up.

Nothing _seemed_ to be out of place, however, but the feeling still remained, nestling itself inside her, probably with no intention to leave.

She was paranoid as they got ready that morning, staring out the window, preparing herself for anything.

She was paranoid all through breakfast, looking over at people suspiciously as she ate her California shaped pancake (which looked lovely, by the way).

She was even paranoid when they went back to the hotel room to bring their repacked bags downstairs- when she saw it.

Below their hotel room window, a man in a hoodie stared up at them, and when Piper got a look at his face, her eyes widened considerably.

Weren't people usually born with _two_ eyes? Not _one_?

"Hey, Annabeth, can you come see this?"

Annabeth hummed in reply, making her way through the hotel room to Piper's side. "Yes?"

"Is it just me, or does that not look suspicious?"

Annabeth frowned at the man. "A little, yeah, but-" Annabeth's face went blank suddenly, and looking at her blank face made Piper think of harsh cold stone, seemingly unbreakable. The thought made her involuntarily shiver. "We need to go."

"Why? Do you recognize him or something?"

"Or something." Annabeth grabbed her bag, picking up one of Piper's as well. "We need to leave here as soon as possible. It's- It's not safe."

"But-"

" _Now_ before either of us get hurt."

Annabeth's authoritative voice was so powerful, it was almost terrifying. Gone was her awkward, gentle expression, now replaced by sudden urgency and authority. Piper wasn't sure how she felt about that. She wasn't sure how she felt about a lot of things with Annabeth.

Piper complied, picking up her other bags and following Annabeth out of the hotel room. The blonde stayed quiet until after Piper had checked out, speaking up when they were out of the hotel and making their way to Piper's Cherokee Jeep.

"That was a Cyclops. They're sometimes invisible to Impures, sometimes not. Depends on how much damage they've caused."

Annabeth had her face scrunched up, except it wasn't like as if she smelled anything bad, it was as if she was trying to… keep herself from crying. She was walking at a fast pace, looking like she wanted to full on run, and maybe they should have, but Piper wasn't going to run. Not until she understood why.

Maybe it was a stupid time to be stubborn, but Piper could have picked a worse time.

"So, they aren't good, then?"

Annabeth's eyes widened and she turned her head so fast Piper was sure she should've had whiplash or something. "No! Not even close. Look, I swear, I'll explain things in your car when we're driving away from here. All you need to know is- sweet heavens, Piper turn around, turn around _now_."

"What, why-"

Piper's stomach dropped to her feet. Leaning against her car was the man from outside their window. Beside him were two others, that surprisingly Piper recognized from other places. One had been outside the hotel when they had gotten here the first night and the other had been in the parking lot when Piper had gotten thrown out.

And all of them only had one eye in the middle of their foreheads.

"Fuck," Piper cursed, she made a move to turn around and as did Annabeth, but the one from outside their room called out to them.

"Hey, you're going to miss the party!"

He smiled and his teeth were sharper than a normal person's- they were as sharp as a canines, and Piper could see how big they were from here. Her eye's widened. The other two laughed beside him, showing off their equally large and wolfishly sharp teeth.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" Piper cursed louder as they pushed off from her car, heading towards them. Her heart was beating erratically and she didn't move, hell, she didn't know what she _would_ do if she could.

"We've got some special refreshments for this party," one of them yelled at her, his wicked grin making her feel sick. "That's you, babycakes."

Piper wanted nothing more than to drown herself at those words. They were fucked. Fucking _fucked_.

Annabeth didn't say a word, instead she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She grabbed Piper's arm and dragged her back towards the hotel lobby, which was full at 9 in the morning, since breakfast was still being held. She dropped their stuff by the door, hidden from plain sight, and Piper prayed to god that they'd be able to grab it on their way out. Those bags had everything they needed in them. She wasn't about to fucking lose them now.

"We need something… something sharp," Annabeth muttered to herself. The clerk was gone at that moment, and Piper didn't know if that was a coincident or not.

People stared at Piper in curiosity, and she knew she must've looked strange, standing in front of the door and looking as if she was scared for her life. But she _was_ scared for her life, so Piper didn't exactly care what they thought at that moment.

Piper could see the men- the Cyclops's getting closer to the door, hopefully unable to see them through the black tinted windows of the sliding glass doors, and Piper and Annabeth both started backing up, and when they got there, Annabeth pushed Piper into the hallway, pressing up against the corner with her.

They came through the doors a second later, and Piper could hear and see their grins on their faces as if they'd just arrived at a feast. That made something occur to Piper.

"Are Cyclops's cannibals? Or I mean, do they eat humans?"

Annabeth stayed quiet for a second and then cursed in the nicest way Piper has ever heard. "Yes."

Fuck.

Piper was going to go to hell for saying that word so many times, but they were truly and utterly _fucked_.

"We have to lead them away from everyone in breakfast," Annabeth said to Piper quietly. She looked focused, but on what Piper wouldn't be able to tell. "They won't care if they do something in front of a crowd- they'd just eat the audience too."

Piper nodded showing that she understood. "How do we do that?"

"I'm working on it."

Piper peeked around the corner, seeing one of the sniffing the air like a dog, his grin coming back as he gestured for the other two to follow him.

"Balder, Cyres! This way!"

The three started towards where they were hiding. They'd smelt them out. How, Piper wasn't sure, but they must have a really strong sense of smell. Must go along with their canine teeth.

Piper's mind was too screwed up to make any actual sense. It was maddening.

"We need a plan," Piper said in an urgent whisper. She could barely hear herself over the lobby's commotion. "Badly."

Annabeth was biting her lip so hard it looked painful. Then she started pushing Piper back, back, back. They made it down the hallway and around the corner before the Cyclops's reached where they had been. And then Annabeth made Piper force the front and began pulling her towards the exit.

"Are we just leaving? You said they eat people! Doesn't that mean they'll eat all the people, or at least some, in the lobby? And even the rest of the hotel?"

Piper wouldn't put it past them to do so- they looked strong and invincible, like they could tear someone apart with their bare hands. The thought didn't comfort Piper.

"I'm trying to save us!" Annabeth said, probably as quietly as she could while running and dragging Piper along behind her. "And for your information, we aren't just leaving, we're leading them _away_ from all the other people. Then we can figure out a way to kill them."

Piper let out a small 'oh'' as Annabeth pulled her out of the building.

They got to the middle of the parking lot before they were spotted a Cyclops that Piper didn't recognize walking towards them with a grin. Annabeth tugged Piper's arms the other way, just to see a second one coming at them from that direction too. And before they could even think of what they should do next, the exit door opened, revealing the Cyclops's from the beginning, the middle one, who seemed to be their leader, holding onto the hair of a teenage girl who was trying to claw her way out of his grip to no avail.

Piper's heart dropped. She couldn't see a lot of her face from where she was, except the girl had frustrated tears streaming down her face, but she looked more determined than anything else. She kicked and scratched at the Cyclops, but as far as Piper could tell, it had no effect on the one-eyed monster. He chuckled at her struggles.

Annabeth looked just as upset as she was, seeing the girl who was brought into this.

"Annabeth Chase," Leader Cyclops said, staring right at them with his one eye. The girl looked at them and frowned in confusion. Piper wondered if she could even see Annabeth, or wonder what was happening. "I am Polyphemus, the great Cyclops sent to collect you and your _impura ludibrio_! Hand yourself over at once."

Annabeth clenched her jaw visibly and shook her head. "No!"

Piper looked around them at the other Cyclops who were getting closer and closer as it was. She nudged Annabeth in an attempt to back up to get away from them both, incidentally bringing them closer to Polyphemus and his band of misfits.

Polyphemus (if that was truly his name. Piper remembered reading something about that name in her history book for class) smiled, his sharp teeth showing slightly. "You are in no position to deny me at this point, Annabeth Chase. I hold a hostage, and possibly a snack. Are you willing to sacrifice an _innocens_?"

At this, he raised the girl off her feet by her brown hair, and she winced harshly, grabbing at his hand so she was at least hanging by her her own hands. Piper's heart dropped as Polyphemus started to open his mouth and the girl let out a strangled cry at the sight of his teeth coming towards her…

"Stop! I'll- I'll go with you, just _please_ ," Annabeth took a step towards him, her voice pleading and desperate. "Let her go."

Polyphemus grinned wickedly, as if he had won. It made Piper feel sick. "Hand yourself over, first."

Piper reached for Annabeth's arm, wanting to pull her back. This couldn't be happening. She didn't _want_ it to. They hadn't set out for three days and already something happened. Piper didn't even know that Cyclops _existed_ until ten minutes ago.

Annabeth turned at her prompting, and to Piper's surprise, she hugged her tightly, her face snuggling into the crook of Piper's neck. Piper blinked and hesitantly returned it.

"Push me down," Annabeth whispered in her ear suddenly.

"What?"

"As I walk away, look like you're mad at something I said and push me down. I have a plan."

Piper frowned. She didn't know what kind of plan involved _that_ but she nodded nevertheless, pulling back to search at Annabeth's face for some kind of clue. But Annabeth was a good actress it seemed, as her face gave away nothing, but held everything of a girl who was facing her end.

Annabeth gave her a half smile and sniffed dramatically, turning around to face Polyphemus. As she did, Piper pulled on her best irritated expression and gave her the slightest push, with not enough force to knock her down, but Annabeth did anyways. She let out a small 'oof' hands searching for something and Piper realized what she was doing a split second after she noticed a glimmer on the ground before it was covered by Annabeth's hand. Then it disappeared down her sleeve as inconspicuously as she could get it to.

The blonde got up, wiping her hands off on her pants before she continued walking, but not with sending a look over her shoulder at Piper.

Polyphemus chuckled as she got close, shoving the girl away from him. She scrambled to her feet and turned to the door, but the other two bared their teeth and she ran- well more like limped- to Piper, who opened her arms to catch her. Her scalp was bleeding into her face and her hands were bruised from colliding with the Cyclops. It made Piper cringe. "It's too bad, really. I was hoping for a quick snack."

The other Cyclops laughed and the girl whimpered, clutching onto Piper's arms tighter. In truth, she wasn't that much younger than Piper was, maybe fifteen or sixteen, and now that Piper had her up close, she realized the girl was trembling.

Piper let the girl lean on her, holding her up. She bet the girl's feet were in the same state as her hands, bloody and bruised.

"What's your name?" Piper asked her quietly as the girl started to tremble.

"E-Esme."

Esme whimpered at Polyphemus's loud voice.

"We'll get you out of here, trust me," Piper said, staring as Annabeth reached three feet in front of Polyphemus. "Annabeth has a plan."

"Who's Annabeth?" Esme said in a shaky voice. "It's just _you_. There's no one else. We're doomed. We're going to _die_."

"Just trust me, we aren't going to die."

Piper knew the girl didn't believe her, but besides from a huff, Esme said nothing about it. Piper knew it was strange, she'd actually forgotten that others couldn't see Annabeth, and that it looked as if Piper and Polyphemus were talking to empty space. Now that she thought about it, the girl probably thought they were _crazy_.

The thought would've made her laugh if she was in any other situation, but she wasn't. Instead of trying to make Esme understand or believe her when she said they'd get her out of there, she focused on Annabeth and Polyphemus.

"Annabeth Chase," the Cyclops said slowly. Piper wanted to wipe his smirk off his face. "There's a certain someone who put a pretty price on your head."

"Like who?" Annabeth asked, her stance rigid. Polyphemus clucked his tongue in a sarcastic way.

"You'll find out soon enough. Now-"

"How did you find us?"

Annabeth's voice echoed slightly with how much force she put into her words, and Polyphemus smiled, amused. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that Annabeth had just completely interrupted him and that he could probably rip her apart with his bare hands. "Your _impura ludibrio_. She should learn to be careful with those.. Credit cards, I believe they're called."

Piper's eyes widened with realization. Of _course_ magical creatures could find out how to track people down using credit cards, because _that_ made sense.

Annabeth's shoulders tensed at the name Piper had apparently been given, and even if Piper couldn't see her face, she knew she was probably fuming. " _Si perserveras loquitur lingua, fiat. Spero frui inferno, Cyclops_."

Piper blinked. She didn't recognize the words, or even the _language_ that she was speaking.

Polyphemus's eyes darkened and his smirk was replaced with annoyance. "You have a mouth, I see. Beware, _puella_ , or I'll show you what that mouth will cost you."

Annabeth flicked her wrist, and something slipped into her hand. " _Vale, spumae_."

Piper wasn't expecting what happened next. Really, she should have, she just didn't expect Annabeth to be so utterly _daring_.

Annabeth practically _lunged_ at Polyphemus, a piece of broken glass clutched in her hand, aiming for his eyes as if it would all end in one single stab.

Unfortunately, Polyphemus saw it coming.

He growled and swiped at her, hitting Annabeth in the arm and she hissed in pain, pulling back and ducking under his next swing, jabbing at him again. She missed a second time, but managed to at least nick his arm.

Piper looked down at Esme, who was watching with furrowed eyebrows, her grip on Piper lessening and then tightening, looking stunned, wondered what she was seeing. Did she see Polyphemus fighting himself? Fighting air?

The Cyclops behind Polyphemus growled and reached out to help as they swiped at each other- and then Annabeth stabbed Polyphemus's _eye_.

The roar that emitted from the Cyclops was deafening, and both Piper and Esme reached to cover their ears. He grabbed at Annabeth, but Annabeth was already stepping back, back, back, until she was almost back beside Piper, staring at Polyphemus with wide eyes.

He growled. " _Mando tibi, o pura_."

And then without out any warning- he burst into flames. He was ash at their feet in seconds, his growls and pained cries echoing in the parking lot, ceasing with the fire.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing.

No, the weirdest part was after that, when the other Cyclops flickered, as if only projections, before they too ceased to exist and the three girls were left alone in the parking lot, staring at Polyphemus's ash remains.

Piper's mind wasn't very quick with processing what had just happened, but Esme whimpered and gaped at the ashes.

"H-he, _what_? He just burst in-into- where did the-"

Piper didn't answer, she just turned her stare to Annabeth. "Annabeth… what happened? What _language_ were you even speaking?"

Annabeth turned to Piper, her face grim and urgent. "We were speaking in Latin. And now we need to leave."

"But what about her?" Piper said gesturing down to the stuttering, flabbergasted girl who was leaning against her. "I can't just drop her in the middle of the parking lot."

"Who are you _talking_ to?" Esme said incredulously. Neither Annabeth or Piper acknowledge her question. Annabeth bit her lip.

"We can't just stay here, we'll get delayed because people will be asking questions. We _have_ to go."

"I'm not disagreeing with you, I just-"

"We go back for the bags and get her to people who can help," Annabeth suggested. "But quickly."

Piper nodded. "Okay," Piper adjusted her grip around Esme's waist, and the girl held on tighter. "It's okay, I've got you. We'll get you to the lobby so you can get help, yeah?"

Esme nodded, wincing as Piper started walking and her foot made contact with the ground again. Piper stopped to give the brown haired girl time to adjust. "Have I gone insane?"

Piper bit her lip, unsure on how to answer. Should she tell her the truth, that a man-eating Cyclops had used her as a hostage to get them to cope? Should she lie or tell her it was all a strange, complicated dream she was having?

"Tell her it's complicated," Annabeth said helpfully from the side. She was watching from the side, her face passive. "And that she'll see what happens when she wakes up."

"What do you mean when she- oh."

Esme's eyes seemed to be having trouble keeping themselves open, and the girl stared at Piper questioningly, the blood from her scalp was starting to flow faster down her face. Piper frowned and tried to stop the bleeding with her hand. Esme leaned into the touch. "It's complicated. You'll see what happened when you wake up."

Esme stared at her, then nodded. She closed her eyes slowly, and eventually, her breathing evened out.

And then she went limp against Piper, falling asleep rather quickly.

They brought Esme back through the exit, sitting her upright against the wall near the lobby, where she would hopefully be found and tended to rather quickly. Then Piper blended in with the crowd, grabbing their bags and passing one to Annabeth. None of them seemed to have noticed what had happened in the parking lot, nor that a guest was missing. The only thing that conveyed the event had actually happened was a few annoyed, anxious staff members who seemed to be searching for a coworker. From what Piper heard, he disappeared not long after Piper had checked out.

"Did you see him come in today?" Piper heard one whisper to the other. The girl nodded.

"Yeah, he clocked in and everything…"

Piper had a sinking feeling of what might of happened, and from the look they shared, Annabeth had the same feeling. But they grabbed their bags from where they had hidden them and hurried to Piper's car, packing it and hopping in as quickly as they could.

Piper pulled out of the parking lot they started on the road.

"What _happened_ back there exactly?" Piper said incredulously. "I mean, you stabbed it in the _eye_. His only eye, Annabeth! And then he _burst into flames_ along with all of the rest of them!"

Annabeth stayed silent, staring ahead at the road as Piper drove along and Piper kept her rant going, sometimes gesturing with her hands if she dared.

"I mean, I'd kind of get why _he_ would burst into flames, because it was _him_ you stabbed in the eye, but the rest of them? You didn't even go _near_ them! And they just- poof! Gone! But that didn't phase you did it? You didn't seem worried or surprised by it-"

"That's because I wasn't," Annabeth interrupted her. "I know a lot about Cyclops. Like weak points that are fatal and how to send them all up into flames."

"What?"

"Look, Cyclops hunt in their own groups. One Cyclops can make other Cyclops' from his own body, whether it be fingers, limbs, blood, just _anything_. The bigger the part, the more of them it creates at one time. That connects their life lines to his until they've been walking around for at least a month. Polyphemus is an older Cyclops, he goes back to ancient history, back when the Greeks were alive. He had the ability to make himself taller than one of your buildings if he wanted to stick out, or blend in among us if he was hunting someone down. That's mostly what he does now, he's a sort of… hunter. If there's a price on someone's head, he hunts them down for the reward."

"So a bounty hunter then," Piper mused. "But you killed him. So it's past tense, right?"

Annabeth snorted. "I wish. For Polyphemus's latest creations, they're dead. They hadn't lived long enough to be their own creature. Polyphemus will be reborn at some point, I wouldn't be surprised if it was right after he burst into flames. If he had survived continually all these years, there would be no _way_ that I'd have gotten _close_ to him. Every time he's reborn, all the fighting skills he had ever acquired are no longer."

"Oh," Piper stayed quiet, directing the car to turn left. They drove in silence for a bit before either spoke up again. "What does ' _impura ludibrio_ ' mean?"

Annabeth's jaw clenched and she stared out of her window for a moment. Piper didn't think she'd get an answer when Annabeth forced something out in a barely contained voice. "It means ' _impure toy_ ' or ' _plaything_ ' in Latin."

Piper waited until Annabeth's shoulders were relaxing from their tense position before asking another question. Sure, the fact that she was called a 'plaything' by a Cyclops was uncomfortable to her, but apparently it didn't bother her half as much as it did Annabeth.

"Where did you learn all of this? Like the stuff with the Cyclops and..?"

"My textbook," Annabeth explained vaguely, her voice still stiff. Piper frowned, not sure what kind of textbook would teach you how to effectively kill a Cyclops, but she didn't question it.

Annabeth let out a sigh, leaning further into her seat. And then to Piper's amusement and shock, she laughed. "'What could go wrong, huh?' Apparently, a lot could go wrong."

Piper's face went red. "I didn't know there were such things as Cyclops!"

"Oh, there's a lot of magical creatures you didn't know exist," Annabeth said with a sigh. She seemed absolutely done with the world. And tired. "But I'll tell you more about that later. Maybe when we get to… wherever you said we were going."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"But no hotels. Please."

Piper smiled sheepishly, her cheeks (which had been recovering slowly) brightening again. "Okay, will do."

Despite the strong, strong feelings Piper had against them, she found herself looking over the papers they had acquired from that NV Energy company, along with the new information they had gotten from CVE Natural just earlier.

Instead of being at a hotel, per Annabeth's request, Piper had parked her car in a park, concealed in the trees (hopefully), and they were hanging out in her trunk. Piper had collapsed the seats to make more room (much to the awe of Annabeth), so they spread out the blankets Piper had brought along and were planning on using the bags as pillows.

Phoenix, Arizona was actually a very nice place. Piper wanted to come back and visit it, see the shopping centers and the parks and just everything.

Annabeth sat across from her, completely mesmerized by Piper's phone. It made Piper smile a little at the sight, but she looked back at the papers and it faded a little bit. So far she had found nothing in common or out of the ordinary on either of sets of papers, and it was irritating her to no end.

The trip to the company had been rather quick in Piper's opinion. And probably the entire world's opinion. Annabeth had gotten in and out of some official's office (Idiot left his office door open while he went in there. Didn't he suspect someone might try to break in?) in record time- almost seven minutes. He had left all his files open just like the last one.

Piper knew their luck would run out and they'd have to resort to other measures (Breaking and entering. Hacking. Other illegal stuff.) to get the information they might need. But she didn't focus on that.

Sighing, Piper rubbed her forehead with her fingers harshly.

"So, you just what, press the circle?" Annabeth said in awe, with perfect timing. She seemed to be doing that a lot, sensing Piper's emotions or something like that. "And it turns on?"

Piper nodded. "It also unlocks the phone, using your fingerprint. Comes in handy when you're rushing."

Annabeth looked absolutely shocked, staring at the iPhone in disbelief. "Woah."

Piper snorted, "So you know what a computer is, but a touch screen phone is completely out of this world?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, tilting the phone at different angles, as if where it was storing all it's information. "I know what a computer is because it was in my text book. But a phone like this… this wasn't in my text book. I thought you had to flip open a phone or something?"

"That was a bit ago," Piper told her. "This is 2016, anything can happen."

Annabeth gave the phone one more look of awe before passing it back to Piper, who took it and placed it next to her on the blanket. "That's just- that's so _advanced_."

"Not so bad for an Impure, yeah?"

Annabeth bit her lip, her face conveying a bit of guilt. "I never said Impures were bad, necessarily."

"Don't worry about it, I was just teasing," Piper said, reading over the papers some more. The words from both were confusing her, mixing up in her mind until she couldn't tell which information was from which company. Then she felt the world spinning, and had to blink to focus again. The words went back in their place, but she couldn't read them. They were blurry and seemed to be moving back and forth, but Piper soon noticed it was because her hand was shaking. Frowning, Piper put down the papers and her hand didn't shake as much. It wasn't as if before it was shaking like mad, it was just moving enough for it to be noticeable.

Piper suspected she was about to get a headache. Words were always difficult before and during headaches.

She was just about to brush it aside, when something popped out at her.

 **Massive Argon Buyer- 'L.C.'.**

Piper shuffled the papers to the NV Energy's papers, only to find more or less the same thing.

 **Argon Consumer- 'L.C.'**

She wondered how many times she had gone over that, seeming to think it was nothing when really there were _endless_ possibilities.

It could be initials, she thought, fingering the edge of the paper with a frown. What would 'L.C.' stand for, though?

"Hey, Chase, come here for a second."

Ever since Polyphemus (Piper had forgotten that they had faced him _and lived_ just hours earlier) had called Annabeth by her full name, Piper decided to use her last name instead of her first. She kind of thought the last name was funny, like Annabeth was actually chasing someone. Maybe she was just tired, but she found that extremely amusing. "What if they were talking in past tense?" Piper had teased during the car ride. "Would you be called Annabeth Chased?"

Annabeth, rolling her eyes a bit, came over willingly, looking over Piper's shoulder at the papers. Piper pointed out the- thought to be- initials. "Does that mean anything to you? Both the papers refer to it and I'm wondering if it's initials for someone's name, or a company."

Annabeth frowned at it, as if running names through her head one by one of all the people she knew (Piper was kind of curious of just _how_ many 'Pures' there were) to see if any of them had matching initials. "Not that I can think of at the moment."

"Well it's a start," Piper started putting the papers away, thankful to at least have found something before they had gone to bed. "Then we can look through the other information tomorrow when we get it."

Annabeth nodded, crawling back over to her side of the makeshift bed and nestling under the blankets. Piper followed her example, turning off the car's lights and laying down with her head on her surprisingly comfortable duffle bag. "Goodnight, Chase."

"Goodnight, McLean."

Piper snorted, adjusting herself and letting her breathing slowly even out.


	10. CHAPTER EIGHT

Annabeth woke up to a sharp pain in her stomach, spreading upwards and making her insides clench and want to tear themselves apart.

She jolted, trying to keep in a cry of pain as she placed her hand on the aching part, feeling veins that had _definitely_ not been there earlier. She had checked every day to see if it had spread without her notice, it could _not_ be spreading now. Annabeth sat up, staring at her stomach as veins thickened and blackened there. Her heart was racing. It was closer to her heart.

Hurriedly, she grabbed and shuffled through her bag, pulling out some _pura cibum_ and quickly scarfing it down, relaxing after a moment as she felt the pain fade a bit. Thank _god_.

She laid back and stared at the ceiling. Annabeth had time. Back in Astoria, before she was sent on this mission, the veins had avoided the heart until they reached the neck or the legs. And then it went for the kill.

Annabeth nodded to herself. Yeah, she had time.

In the silence, she heard some faint whimpering beside her, and she only realized _then_ that Piper was still there when she looked up to find the source of the whimpering.

Dazed, Annabeth only blinked at first, sitting up again and blinking some more before another whimper jarred her into realization.

And it took another moment to realize that that was _Piper_ whimpering.

Annabeth immediately reached out to touch the side of Piper's face, which was extremely sweaty despite the cool air of the night. She used one of the blankets to wipe some of it off, to give Piper some relief at least, but it did little to help.

The whimpers started out small, and that already made Annabeth's heartache. But slowly it turned into desperate, pleading cries that echoed almost softly throughout the car and Annabeth felt herself at a loss of what to do. She looked around and grabbed the water bottle Piper had gotten for her at a gas station (she had used 'cash' as Piper had called it) and some napkins that were left out, pouring the water over the napkins and dabbing at her face. It seemed to help, at least a little, though Piper kept letting out pained sounds and muttering to herself every little bit. Some were indistinct, soft cries that were louder than anything else, that had Annabeth restraining herself from kissing the girl's forehead or just holding her close to calm her.

Finally, when Piper's sweating seemed to dissipate, Annabeth let out a sigh, pulling back. She didn't know what to do about the nightmares, she supposed she should try to wake Piper up, but then what?

Before she could pull away too far, Piper's hand snatched her wrist, pulling her over closer to her with a whine.

The next thing Annabeth knew, she was holding onto Piper tightly, and miraculously, the girl's whimpering and muttering faded away and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully… more or less.

Annabeth knew that she should move right away because Piper definitely would _not_ like this if she woke up in the morning to this. But when she tried to pull away, Piper just yanked her back, seeming determined to keep Annabeth right where she was.

With a frown, Annabeth tried again, only to end up in the exact same position.

"You know," Annabeth whispered in a somewhat frustrated voice, "for someone who claims I ruined their life, you sure don't act like you're all that upset."

She wanted to pull back, to respect PIper's seeming distaste for being close to her, but Annabeth felt so _happy_ snuggled up to Piper, and Piper had initiated it so was there really a big deal about it?

Part of Annabeth screamed _yes_ it was important because it was Piper, but the other half screamed _no_ for the same reason. It was terribly confusing.

Annabeth ended up giving in, after an internal debate with herself (mostly chiding from the side that had been telling her not to do it) and pulled Piper closer to herself. She closed her eyes and let out a content sigh.

She wasn't going to tell Piper about the veins. Nor was she going to move from this spot.

Only for a little bit, she then chided to herself. Only for a little bit.

Piper was in a bad mood when she woke up later that morning.

She was easily irritated and just the mention of anything that had slightly upset her before now sent her on a ranting rampage, cursing everyone and everything with it. Every time she used a cuss word, Annabeth would cringe so harshly, she was surprised Piper didn't go on a rant about _that_.

Annabeth kept silent during most of it, only adding small comments where Piper expected it, not wanting to egg her on further.

They left the makeshift bed in the back alone, knowing they'd need it for the night, and started their next drive, which apparently angered Piper to no end. The voice that told Piper where to go from her phone irritated her so many times, Annabeth had to stop her from throwing it out of the window.

 _Several_ times.

Annabeth found it was incredible, Piper found it was unfortunate.

Annabeth wasn't exactly excited about this trip. According to Piper's (talking) phone, it was a two-day drive to wherever they were heading next. She guessed it never came up. Piper wasn't exactly the best on keeping her updated when she was irritated, it seemed.

The longer they were in the car, much to Annabeth's happiness and surprise, the less Piper ranted, until she became completely silent. It made Annabeth sigh in complete relief.

Don't get her wrong, she loved Piper. Correction: she was _in love_ with Piper. Completely. Utterly.

But Piper was starting to reach a point where Annabeth couldn't stand her.

The drive was pretty smooth after that, neither of them commented on anything and Piper turned on the… radio, Annabeth thought it was called, to fill the silence between them. That is, until Annabeth spilled the water, that someone had left open in the middle console, while she was turning around to get something in the back.

Piper pretty much _sneered_ , immediately pulling over and demanding Annabeth to pass her all the napkins in the compartment in front of her seat. Annabeth did as she asked, jumping slightly when Piper barked at her to get out of the seat so she could clean up the mess, grumbling when she did, immediately mopping it all up. And then she started muttering to herself not so quietly, making Annabeth's eye twitch. Some of the mutterings were just complaints about her 'precious seat' being ruined, which Annabeth could probably deal with. Her lap was soaking and felt cold in the outside air, sending goosebumps up and down her body.

When she offered to help, Piper just glared at her and said the one thing that could set Annabeth off in a heartbeat.

"Aren't you pure? Doesn't that mean you _don't_ mess up?"

Annabeth's eyes narrowed until they were slits on her face, staring at Piper with such _annoyance_. She could get a bad day, or maybe even two. She could get her bad mood being towards her for what had happened before all of this. But _that_ comment felt like a direct blow to _everything_ Annabeth had ever done involving Piper.

"Just because I'm pure doesn't mean I never mess up," Annabeth snapped at her, snatching some napkins for herself. She wiped at the wet blob angrily. "I'm human after all, and humans mess up. But, being Pure isn't about being perfect, being Pure is about caring and not letting yourself get to absorbed in your own problems to distract you from others. Being Pure means you're very empathetic and aware of other's needs _and_ your own. Being Pure means your _genes_ are perfect, not you yourself. So don't _you_ ever come after me about _that_ , Piper McLean, don't you even _try_."

Piper kept her mouth shut, staring at the seat and glaring at it as if the seat had personally harmed her. Then she sighed, wiping up the last bit of the mess and hopping back into her seat. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." She kept her eyes forward, not even glancing at Annabeth. "Let's just go."

The fact that she had made Piper shut up like that both made Annabeth feel triumph and guilty. Guilty because she probably could have been gentler (no, she _definitely_ could have been gentler) and triumph because she was so tired of Piper's attitude towards her. As if Annabeth was the worse human being possible. She couldn't seem to focus on one way to feel towards her.

Annabeth pushed the guilt down, climbing back into the newly cleaned seat and shutting the door. She was just standing up for herself, even if Piper was having nightmares and night sweats. That gave her no right to make a comment like that.

But as she stared out the window when Piper started their drive again, she couldn't help but wish she had said something to ease Piper and get them talking again.

They arrived in Oregon a day later, parking in some woods again so that they could sleep. The car ride had been better, but the next night Piper had nightmares again. This time, she woke up from it, panting and feeling disgusted at how sweaty she was.

Something nudged at her mind, like the nightmares and sweating so harshly were clues at something, but no matter how hard she thought about it, Piper couldn't seem to pinpoint it.

She had a better night that night, her nightmare wasn't there, but she woke up to cramps in her abdomen, making her flinch and writhe a bit before they stopped, leaving her a panting mess. That too nudged at her conscious, as if it meant something, but once again Piper had no idea what it could be.

As they got ready that morning (Piper in the front and Annabeth in the back), Piper made sure to go over the plan with Annabeth again. She had a bad feeling about whatever was going to happen. Maybe they'd be closed, or- or someone was actually smart and closed their computer. Whatever it may be, she wanted it to be drilled into their heads.

"So what do you do if the door or computer is locked?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes but answered anyways. She could tell she was getting on the blonde's nerves, but she was starting to feel extremely paranoid over this and the last time she felt paranoid (three days ago) they had gotten attacked by Cyclops.

"I come to get you and we switch roles."

"Excellent. Now, are you ready to go?"

Annabeth nodded, crawling up to her seat and buckling in, Piper doing the same on her side. Then she turned on the car and put it in reverse, and they were off.

Lucky for them, the company was _not_ closed. Piper would have checked using the Internet beforehand, but if monsters (or people?) were following them through credit cards, she wouldn't be surprised if they were following her by phone now too. Most of the time, she had the phone turned off completely.

Unlucky for them, however, Annabeth came running back with a small frown on her face.

"The computer's closed," she said as she reached Piper, who had been talking to the official whose office Annabeth had been in. Piper bit her lip, trying to pay attention to what the official was saying and listen to Annabeth. She nodded, to let Annabeth know she heard her, but only slightly.

This was tricky.

"-And you have to be extremely careful about the-"

"Oh, look at the time! Sorry, sir, but I really need to be going… I just realized I have an appointment that I'm going to be late for and my mom will kill me if I miss it, but thank you for the information you shared with me!"

The official frowned but nodded all the same as Piper turned around, heading back towards Annabeth. She looked around at the elevator and muttered under her breath, "What room, again?"

"Room 302 on the second floor."

"Alright, I'm going to head up then," Piper inhaled sharply. She noticed a little slot, presumably for a key card. "Remember, make as much noise and commotion as possible. Do you still have the key card you used to get upstairs?"

"I think I left it upstairs."

"Well then, you see that card around the guy's neck who I was talking to? I'm going to need that."

"Give me a minute or two."

Piper acted as if she was going towards the doors and leaving, and she knew the official she had been talking to was eyeing her when she took a little too long to go around one of the couches. She lingered for a moment, waiting for Annabeth to do something- when a vase slid off from its place in the middle of the room and crashed onto the floor, its contents and now broken ceramic spilling _everywhere_ and several people let out frightened gasps, jumping away from the noise.

Then another one, halfway across the room, was _tossed_ into the air, crashing almost on top of someone's _head_.

When Piper had looked over, Annabeth was covering her mouth with her hands, seeming absolutely horrified. "I'm sorry!" She squeaked, but it went unheard to all the others. Instead, a woman, with bags under her eyes, shrieked.

"We're all going to die!"

"Oh for heaven's sake, we are _not_ -"

Several other things started crashing to the floor and some things were thrown at others, causing several other people to scream, and Piper hurried over to the elevator, trying to contain a small laugh as one woman ran around shrieking as Annabeth chased after her with scissors (which must have looked like the scissors were floating by themselves, but with Annabeth being the cause of the mayhem, Piper just found it hilarious). As she made it across, Annabeth grinned at her and tossed her the key card, which she caught- barely.

Another set of other papers and supplies went flying as Piper swiped the card and escaped into the elevator as the doors opened. She hit the second-floor button and started laughing uncontrollably as the doors closed. The looks on some of the people's faces (one man even _screamed_ so high pitched, Piper thought he had been a woman) were absolutely _priceless_ and Piper tried engraving them into her mind for whenever she needed a good laugh.

Annabeth certainly had a better way of distracting than she did.

As the doors opened again, Piper's laughter died down, but a grin still remained on her face as she searched the floor for room 302. When she found it moments later, she cracked her knuckles, winced slightly because that hurt like hell, and sat in front of the computer.

"Alrighty then,... Kevin's computer," Piper said, reading the man's placard that read KEVIN TRANSKEY. "Let's see what I can do."

Thankfully, it was just a simple passcode (seriously, thank god for people who aren't paranoid) and used a simple hacking trick that Leo had taught her and their other friends for fun (it was great having friends who were machine geniuses).

At that thought, Piper was forcibly reminded of the friends she had left behind at home. Her hand clenched around the mouse, her entire body tense, but she forced herself to relax at the task at hand. She had time to think about them later. Right now was strictly getting the information they needed and getting out of there before they got in trouble.

Piper scrolled through the files, looking at each one in detail before her eyes darted to the door and she started using ctrl+f to find keywords in the file. Several of them mentioned 'massive argon', but only two mentioned 'argon buyer'. She clicked on the two and went through them for 'L.C.'. Annabeth might think it was nothing, she could tell by her uninterest in it, but something about it told Piper that it was important.

There were six mentions of 'L.C.' on the first document and only two on the second. She didn't focus on what they were about, too rushed on trying to get out of there before someone saw her. (Unfortunately, she's not invisible like Annabeth. Pity.)

She printed the pages, practically ripping them out of the printer and making her way through the office door quickly. Piper ducked into the hallway, clutching the key card in hand as she made her way into the elevator. She would drop the keycard on the floor in the lobby to make it seem like the employee had just dropped it.

The doors opened and papers were still flying. People were hiding under desks, or overturned couches and chairs, as one woman was rocking back and forth in the corner of the room. Piper wanted to laugh at such a sight, but the thought that the woman may be needing actual therapy after this stunt immediately diminished the urge.

Annabeth looked up from where she was trying to push a couch off of some of the guests, most likely to make sure they weren't _actually_ being crushed, raising an eyebrow at Piper. Piper nodded back, stepping back towards the exit one foot at a time.

The blonde tried to keep attention on the ruckus she was creating as Piper dropped the key card randomly on the floor and started towards the exit as quietly as she could. Once she was at the door, she slipped out the back, clutching the papers to her chest. She ducked behind a tree and a minute later Annabeth walked out of that same door, catching it so it closed quietly, even though she really didn't need to.

With that, they rushed to Piper's car, ducking into it, and as soon as the engine was on, Piper veered out of the parking lot and down the street in a heartbeat.

Piper's heart was racing, her palms were sweating, and in the distance, she could hear sirens in the air. Despite it, Piper laughed in relief. She _laughed_ \- they had done it. They had just broken into and stole information from a big shot company.

Piper whooped, grinning her head off as a wind blew through her face and hair, and Annabeth looked at her strangely, before laughing too.

But they still had a ways to go.

Later that night, Piper had parked the car in a wooded area when she felt safe away from the suspected area, and the two girls piled into the back of the car, scrambling and crawling around to get comfortable. In an instant, Piper pulled out the other two sets of documents, going through them and seeing if the two related to each other like she had thought.

As she scanned through them, Annabeth sat back on her calves in front of her, eagerly awaiting the news.

Piper reached the end of both documents, blinking. It hadn't mentioned anything of the full name of 'L.C.', much to her disappointment, nor anything on the whereabouts of who ordered it or anything about them. Perhaps even the company didn't know that information. But there was an address of where they were shipping and dropping these things off at and Piper recognized it at once. It was, of course, the house across the street from hers.

But they already _knew_ that, so the information was pointless, despite her subconscious trying to tell her otherwise.

"So?" Annabeth questioned her, her eyes wide with curiosity. "Is there anything important in there? Hm?"

Piper rested the papers on her lap. "Do you know anyone with the initials of 'L.C.' in your world?"

It was Annabeth's turn to blink. "Possibly, yeah. Why? You don't think that- right?"

Piper tapped her finger on her leg, lips pursed into a frown. "I think it might be a possibility. I mean, no one in this world is supposed to _know_ about this stuff, right? The only people to know anything about your weaknesses or anything would have to be one of _you_. Unless you have some other enemy people like those Cyclops."

Annabeth shook her head. "All of our other enemies are probably experiencing this same thing, they aren't 'pure', but their life force uses our atmosphere and they generally stay in our world. They wouldn't doom themselves just to land a strike at us if they even _wanted_ to strike at us."

"What about a rogue Pure?" Piper suggested. "Have you ever had a Pure go rogue or something and have them want to hurt other Pure's?"

Annabeth's frown deepened and Piper almost wished she hadn't brought it up. "Not anyone I've heard of, but I highly doubt there is a person like that in Astoria," the blonde said as she sat back, leaning on the side of the car. She let out a sigh. "I've been thinking on this for a bit, but I don't think there's anything else to find here. I think we should go to Astoria and investigate."

Piper opened her mouth to reply, but Annabeth talked over her hurriedly to defend her thinking. "It's just, all we can find it the 'L.C.', but we don't know who or what that is, right? So maybe we should go and investigate in Astoria to get more information-"

Piper furrowed her eyebrows before reaching across the car and placing a hand on Annabeth's arm, making her stop abruptly, all of her attention focusing on the hand. Piper didn't move it.

"I wasn't going to argue," Piper assured her. Annabeth relaxed slightly, but not as much as Piper would have liked. "I think you're right- there's nothing left here for us to possibly uncover. I'm willing to follow you wherever you think is best."

It takes a moment, but bit by bit, Annabeth's shoulders dropped and she let out a breath. "Okay... okay. So."

Piper raises an eyebrow and smiles lightly. "Astoria?"

Annabeth smiles back shyly. "Astoria."

With a nod, Piper tilts her head towards the front seat. "Let's move back up there and get going then. Are we going back to my house or to another entrance?"

Annabeth shakes her head. "There's only one, so back to your house it is."

After they crawled and maneuvered themselves back to their seats, and Google Maps is geared up on Piper's phone, Piper puts the Jeep in drive.

And off they go.


End file.
